A New Home
by Allistar
Summary: This is related to my other DBZ fanfiction A House is Not a Home except this time it takes place in the actual DBZ universe. It starts a little before the Buu Saga. Summery: A mysterious alien girl crash lands on Earth in search of the one that killed her brothers. Instead, she finds the Z Fighters. Finding herself weaker than she had imagined she urges to become stronger. OC.
1. The Arrival

"Almost done."

A girl with short, thick black hair that stood up in the back wiped her hands on her tattered clothes. Her untrimmed claws caught on the fabric and tore it even worse. She frowned at it before shrugging, it didn't matter much to her.

The environment on this planet was finally beginning to get to her. Or maybe it was just the waiting.

This planet couldn't be more different from her home planet with its freezing winds and the impossibility of actually seeing the ground under the deep, packed snow. Not saying that her home planet was picture perfect, but at least it wasn't fucking cold.

Looking up at the dark sky she breathed a jet of steam through her nose. Soon, soon, this whole thing will be over.

**DBZ**

"Mom!" Trunks called, running to his mother's workshop, "MOM, YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THIS."

"Trunks?" The blue haired woman shouted, peaking from under the hover car she had been "fixing". "Trunks, whats going on?"

Nearly toppling over a table of tools, Trunks took his mother's hand and tugged it gently, "The news! Gramps says you've got to come see!"

"Okay, okay!" Bulma mumbled, pushing herself up and began to follow Trunks out of the workshop.

"Come ON, MOM." Trunks bellowed.

"Sheesh, alright!" Bulma huffed, breaking into a jog.

Trunks zipped into the living room where the T.V was turned on and Mr. and Mrs. Briefs were watching it with evident shock.

Bulma stood near her father as Trunks plopped on the couch. "What's going on?"

"Just watch." He murmured.

"- again, there has been what seems to be a piece of space junk coming towards Earth. Geologists suspect that it should land in the prairies west of Satan City - which are uninhabited as far as we know. If anyone is in the prairies authorities advise to evacuate the area immediately. " said the reporter on the T.V.

"The junk is expected to crash land in about an hour, we advise everyone to stay in their homes around that time. There will be a watch every ten minutes…"

"So?" Bulma shrugged, "space junk falling from the sky?"

"Except Gramps and I don't think it's just space junk." Trunks explained, looking excited.

Mr. Briefs nodded, "They had put live footage on. Thank goodness I've recorded it." He picked up the remote control and pressed the rewind button. "There." He used his other hand to point at the fuzzy picture on the T.V. "They couldn't get a good picture, unfortunately, but I think we can both tell what that looks like."

Bulma squinted at it for a second before gasping, "But it can't be!" she shrieked, "There's absolutely no way that can be what I think it is!"

Mr. Briefs frowned, shrugging, "With this quality of picture we can't know for sure…" he turned to talk to Bulma again but she was already heading for the door, "Trunks, you want to come see a space ship crash land live?"

"Oh, yeah!" Trunks whooped, "I mean, yeah, why not?"

"Alright then." Bulma smiled.

**DBZ**

When Bulma and Trunks arrived at the prairies where the "space junk" was supposedly going to crash land they found that Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, and Goten had already beaten them there.

"Hey, you guys." Bulma called, climbing out of her hovercraft. "Come to see the spaceship too?"

"Hi, Bulma, Trunks." Gohan greeted, looking around at her and grinning in greeting. "As for the spaceship, I think its more whats inside of it that brought us here."

"Is it something strong?" asked Trunks, rushing towards Goten.

Gohan shrugged, "We think so."

"It won't be a problem." Vegeta huffed, "Perhaps for the Kakarot spawn it will be a challenge."

Bulma rolled her eyes as she stood by her lover.

"Either way its not coming for a while." Gohan muttered, peering at the sky. "We might as well sit back for now. What do you think Piccolo?" he asked, looking over at his green mentor.

"Might as well." He commented, folding his arms.

"Wanna spare, Goten?" Trunks asked, raising his fists.

"Yeah!" agreed Goten, getting in a stance of his own.

"Well, at least we'll have entertainment." Bulma sighed, taking a seat on the dry grass.

**DBZ**

All at once Gohan, Piccolo, and Vegeta stiffened. Bulma, Trunks and Goten immediately noticed that there was something wrong and they stopped in their acts and looked at the sky warily.

"Its coming?" Bulma asked.

"Yeah, see?" Piccolo said, pointing to the sky where a fiery object had appeared, coming down to Earth.

Gohan squinted at the object, "Looks like its going to land somewhere over there." He noted, indicating to the distance.

They all watched the spherical object coming closer to Earth until it finally landed, making the Earth quake as it did so.

Bulma hurried to her shuttle to take off as the rest quickly flew towards the crash sight.

For a second all was quiet when everyone arrived, staring at the smoking machine cautiously. Gohan and Trunks stood nearest to it with Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo closely behind. Bulma was coming closer to it, peaking at it curiously.

Then the door of the shuttle opened and a cloud of smoke erupted from within like a miniature volcano. Everyone stared as a dark figure could be barely seen coming out of the shuttle.

The mystery person released a quick wave of ki to blow away the smoke.

A young woman was standing aloft. She had black hair that stuck up in weird places and ears that folded over on themselves as well as a tail that reminded most of a feathery dog tail. She had the harsh look of someone who hadn't eaten and slept properly in a long time, although she was holding herself upright with her shoulders back. She was turned, looking to the west of them and hadn't seemed to notice them yet. She slowly rotated until she was finally facing them.

Her eyes immediately zeroed in on Vegeta.

She bared her teeth in hate and snarled, _"You."_

She pounced off of the shuttle and stalked towards Vegeta, who's eyes seemed to have widened comically. She continued forward until there was barely a foot in distance between the two. Vegeta screwed his face up, trying to pass as nonplussed, but didn't budge.

The girl glared down at him, "Saiyan." She spat, "Where's your partner?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Vegeta mused.

The rest watched warily, but Piccolo looked like he was confused, as well as Gohan. Trunks and Bulma immediately realized something was off, other than the fact that the alien was talking to Vegeta like she knew him before.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" she barked. "Big guy, bald, mustache, ring any bells?"

"She means the Saiyan that came with you to Earth." Piccolo stated.

"Oh, yeah," Gohan, "Something like Nappa, right?"

The girl's eyes flicked to the rest of the group, her eyes fell on the two boys, Piccolo, Gohan, Bulma, and back to Vegeta.

"Where is he?" she growled.

"Why do I have to answer to you?" the black hair alien huffed.

The alien girl studied the man before backing off of him and turning to the group. "This Saiyan, what happened to him?" she asked, her voice was becoming softer as she regained control of herself, but her brown eyes still looked feral.

"He's dead." Piccolo answered, gruffly, narrowing his eyes at the girl.

The alien stared, her face looked like it had been carved out of wood. She slowly turned back to Vegeta.

"It's true?" she asked in a monotone.

Vegeta glared at her before nodding once.

The girl looked like all of the air was coming out of her although she was still standing.

"Alright then." She sighed, she went to her shuttle and kicked it hard. The machine flew away from her and into the distance the moment her foot touched it. The group could hear its muffled crash a few moments later. She continued to stare far off into the distance, more like she was staring into another world.

Bulma came forward, a little slowly, but not in anyway scared or nervous. "How do you know about Saiyans?" she asked loudly.

The group could see the alien girl's ears fold backward a little towards Bulma but didn't answer.

"Hey!" Bulma shouted, "I'm talking to you! How do you know about Saiyans! What kind of alien are you?"

The girl slowly turned toward the group, her warm yet cold eyes on the blue haired woman.

"Why don't you ask him?" she jerked her head towards Vegeta, whom was still staring at her shrewdly.

"She asked _you_ the question." Vegeta growled.

The girl merely glared at him coldly.

Gohan was the one to step forward this time. "We're not here to pick fights. Tell us your name and where you came from."

The alien blinked quizzically at him.

"You're not a Saiyan." She stated, "You don't have a tail." She gestured to Bulma, Goten, and Trunks. "Neither do you." Her fury ears moved forward as she studied the group and her forehead creased as her eyes darted to Vegeta, noticing that his tail was gone as well.

"What happened to your tail?" she inquired. "The source of your power? You didn't take it off, of course?"

Vegeta's eyes narrowed visibly, "And what if I did, Morak?"

"Morak?" Bulma blinked.

"Is that what you are?" Gohan asked, "Your species?"

The girl sighed heavily, still glaring at Vegeta with dislike. "Yes, that is my species. Morakian, or Morak for short." She answered turning her head to survey the group again.

"I've certainly never heard of it." Piccolo muttered darkly.

"And what species are you?" she asked, her voice icy.

"Namekian." He answered simply.

The girl's mood did a 180 as she gawked at the green alien. "Namekian? A Namek?" she asked in awe.

Piccolo grunted, "Yeah, what of it?"

The alien girl swallowed thickly, shaking her head slowly, "Nothing." She said quietly. "I wasn't expecting a Namek to be here is all."

She slowly looked again at the rest. "What species are you? Human?"

"I am." Bulma answered, "But these guys are half Saiyan."

The girl turned her attention to Gohan, Trunks, and Goten. "Hybrids?" she asked, then turned to Vegeta, "Yours?"

"Just the purple one." He grunted.

The alien than looked at Gohan and Goten, "There's another Saiyan here?"

Both Sons shook their heads solemnly, "No, he died."

The girl's eyes softened a fraction and inclined her head, "I'm sorry for your loss." Then her eyes became chilly again. "Thank you for your time. I have to go now."

"Hold up." Gohan cried, flying to block her path. She nearly dodged him if he hadn't grabbed her arm. She didn't try to run away, but she glared daggers at his arm.

"What?" she growled.

"You still haven't answered all of our questions. Now, I don't want to hurt you but if you don't start cooperating I will!" he said, fire in his eyes.

The girl inclined her, studying the hybrid intently before nodding, "Fine, but you have to let me go."

Gohan's brow furrowed even more, "Promise you won't run the moment I let you go."

"Why?" Vegeta shouted, "We'll just catch her anyway."

Gohan ignored him, "Say it." He ordered the girl.

There was a pause before she nodded slowly, "I promise not to run away the moment you let me go." She stated clearly.

"Good." Said Gohan as he released her arm.

The girl took a few steps back from the young man and gazed around at the group. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything." Gohan said, keeping his gaze even.

"Starting on why you're here." Piccolo piped in.

The girl twisted her hair nervously, her eyes kept flicking to each member, her tail was swishing back and forth slowly.

"I came here because I had heard that the Saiyan, Nappa, was here." She stated, "The same Saiyan that killed my brothers. I came here to kill him."

When all was silent she continued, "Anything else in particular?"

"I said everything." Gohan said, his eyes were still wary but it had softened a fraction. "Your race, where you came from, your name, how you got here."

"In that order?" The girl asked, a ghost of a smile on her face. "I'm a Morakian. My race was created by Freiza while he was still powerful. He created us using the DNA of a Saiyan, which is 63% of our DNA, and the DNA of a Namekian, approximately 47%. I don't know all of the details so there could have been more thrown in but Namekian and Saiyan are the two main ones."

"Why would he create a species?" Bulma wondered.

"He wanted a race that could destroy planets as easily as a Saiyan, but are more loyal and easier to control. From what I remember of my elders they said that he was planning on wiping out the rest of the Saiyan race and rely on my species alone," She explained, "but he didn't get the chance to do that before my people rebelled."

"And you survived?" Piccolo asked.

The alien frowned deeper, "He set the Saiyans on us. Wiped most of my people out before deciding that we weren't worth the time." She reached for her hair and began tugging it.

"Why?" Trunks asked, "Why wouldn't they just wipe you all out?"

This was the first time the alien had heard the boy speak, she stared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly.

"Because my people didn't like fighting to kill." She answered, "That was the reason the originals rebelled in the first place. My people didn't want to kill, not that we didn't fight." A sad grin appeared on her face, it was just a tilt of the lips but it softened her eyes nonetheless. "We fought for sport, to grow stronger. It was something to enjoy for us. Not something to kill each other with."

She took another breath and continued, "The Saiyans and Frieza deserted the last of the originals on a desert planet, thinking that we'd starve to death probably, but they didn't count on our Namekian genes." She smirked at Piccolo. "They were able to find a source of water and that's how we lived. Although the hunger hurt, it was better than starving."

Vegeta grunted.

"And that's how we lived for many generations." The alien went on, "We created our own civilization and lived in piece, until our elder had a vision." Her voice became wooden, "That's a power some of us had. The ability to see into the future, though, it was very rare.

The elder saw that Frieza was going to destroy planet Vegeta, the Saiyans home world, and then come for us. The people had been working on a way of space travel so we could trade and had somewhat finished a small shuttle," she shrugged in the direction of the pod that she kicked over yonder. "But it was very small. Only two fully - grown Moraks could fit in it. " Her eyes became glazed over, "We were only just able to fit in three children. I included. The other two were my younger brothers. I was only five. We got out just in time, I saw my planet explode.

I am the last Morakian. My name is Nira."


	2. Escaping for Attention

The group gazed at her, all looked downcast except for Vegeta and Piccolo, although Piccolo looked a little less angry.

Nira took a deep breath and released it slowly, tears threatened to fall down her face. "The shuttle wasn't finished and the blast, even though it didn't hit us, the force of it damaged it heavily. My brothers and I were put into cryosleep until we arrived at another planet. I don't know how long we were in there, but it was much too long.

We came to a frozen planet, and soon after a Saiyan had appeared. We heard them killing all of the natives and my brothers and I hid in a cave. One Saiyan found us," she paused, her eyes looking at something that wasn't there, "I tried to fend him off, I was the strongest of the three but I was out of practice with all of the time in cryosleep and not properly trained. The Saiyan was able to get me on the ground with one punch. With me out of the way, he went after my brothers. Killed them both." Her fists were clenched tightly, so tight that blood was beginning to drip onto the dying grass like red rain.

"Then he came along," She pointed at Vegeta, "and severed off all of my limbs and left me to rot with my brothers corpses."

The others looked disappointed but unsurprised at the latest revelation of Vegeta's past.

"How'd you grow back your limbs?" asked Trunks, eyeing her distrustfully.

"My race has always been able to regrow limbs, but its extremely taxing." She explained.

"That's a Namekian attribute." Piccolo said.

Nira shrugged, "Ever since then I had been training myself and repairing the shuttle so I could find the Saiyan who killed my brothers, but it seems I've come too late." She ended solemnly, angrily. "There, that's everything. Can I go now?"

Gohan shrugged, "I... I guess, but you can always come and live with us." He gestured to the crowd.

"Of course." Bulma said, coming closer to Nira who took a cautious step back. "We have plenty of room." She pointed to her shuttle, "You can come with us!"

Nira shook her head, she looked like she was being backed into a corner, "No, no, I can't. I have to g – "

The rest of her sentence was cut short when Piccolo made a quick jab to her neck, she hadn't even seen him move. He caught her mid fall and lifted her under one arm.

"I suggest you get her to your house quick." He stated, "Before she wakes up."

"Why'd you go and do that for?!" Bulma shrieked, stomping over to the large green alien.

"We can't have her roaming around, she can be a danger to herself and others in her state of mind." He explained, looking impatient, "We'll keep her at your house where Vegeta can have an eye on her at all times. I'll be checking in now and again."

"I'll help too." Gohan announced.

"Yeah, me too!" Trunks stated, looking excited.

"And me!" Goten cried, looking determined.

"Hmph." Vegeta grunted, "Just as long as she doesn't get in my way." He said, rising up into the sky, preparing to leave.

"Maybe we should stay at your house tonight." Gohan advised, "Just in case."

"That's sweet of you Gohan. Fine, as long as your mother says its okay." She answered.

"See you there!" he smiled, rising into the air as well.

"Guess we should get going." Bulma sighed, gesturing to Gohan and Trunks, "Piccolo, you can just set her inside. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Piccolo nodded once and entered the shuttle.

**DBZ**

"When do you think she's going to wake up?" wondered Goten.

Trunks shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe soon."

The two children were busy playing Mariokart, Goten just didn't seem to get that bananas were bad.

"That's really sad, you know." Goten pouted, coming in 8th place again. "Having to family. My dads gone but I have mom and Gohan."

"Yeah, it is pretty sad." Trunks agreed, "How about Rainbow Road?"

Goten shrugged, "Okay."

"You two having fun?" asked Trunk's mother.

"Yes, Ms. Bulma." Goten chirped, grinning up at her.

She smiled back down at them and ruffled Trunk's hair ("Moooooom!") "Good, try not to wake up our guest, kay?" She said as she began to walk out the door to her workshop so she could continue working on the hover car.

…

"… I walk a lonely road, the only road that I ever know…"

"THAT'S BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE FELL OFF."

**DBZ**

Everything felt foggy to Nira as she woke up slowly. Her neck hurt something awful as her head slowly caught up with her body. Sight, smell, and taste started to make sense to her again.

The first thing she realized was that she was on something extremely soft and clean. With one clawed hand she felt the fabric beneath her. It was extremely smooth and comfortable. It was calling her back to deep, dreamless sleep for once in her life.

She knew that would have to wait for another day.

Breathing softly, she gently swiveled herself towards the floor. One shoed foot after the other she was able to lift herself up to full height. The throbbing in her neck came to her full force making her wince. She saw a mirror on the door and padded towards it silently and examining the bruise that was beginning to appear there, a small one, but one nonetheless.

Nira reached up with one hand and rubbed it soothingly, sighing softly. The Namek had moved without her even seeing it. These warriors must be extremely strong, and she wasn't.

Scowling, she looked around the room. It was a pale blue color with white trim. The bed fairly large and had sea foam green sheets and a pale yellow comforter. There were two doors on either side of the room, not including the one that she was standing next to.

Nira took a deep breath, taking in the smell of lemon and detergent, and went to the door on the right. It led to a large closet (but of course to Nira it was just a poorly thought out room) with nothing inside except for a few towels. She closed the door silently and then went to the other one. This one led to a small bathroom with a shower.

Nira picked up the toilet seat and realized what it was used for immediately, since on her home planet they had holes in which they did their business in and a toilet wasn't much different.

Realizing that she could really use the restroom right about now, she took a seat.

**DBZ**

Nira took one more look around the room before laying eyes on the window.

It would the logical decision.

She had been kidnapped.

But the Namek had been able to take her out with one hit.

Perhaps he would be willing to teach her…

No, she couldn't do that.

She just had to get out of there.

There wasn't anything left for her now.

Not even vengeance.

There was no honor in suicide.

Mom and Dad would have wanted her to leave the world having done something with her life.

But would they have wanted the daughter who let the brute kill her brother's keep living?

She would never know.

Making a quick decision, she opened the window softly, keeping a sharp eye and ear out for any of the warriors.

Nira put one foot through the window followed by her torso and head, and finally the other foot.

**DBZ**

"Krillen. Eighteen. Its nice of you guys to come." Bulma smiled.

"Well, when we got that call about the alien girl we decided that we should get here as soon as we can." Krillen nodded.

Bulma grinned at Marron who was hiding behind Eighteen's legs, "Well, I'm glad you did." She beamed, "Anyway, come inside, our guest is inside, probably still asleep."

"Ahem." Eighteen coughed, pointing to the window on the second floor of the Brief residence. "You mean that guest?"

Sure enough, Nira could be seen straddling the window sill, she was just beginning to bring the other foot out when Bulma shouted, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

The shout had startled the alien and she tripped a little, gawking at the group of humans on the ground.

"GET DOWN HERE." Bulma ordered.

Nira looked from Bulma to the distance, thinking quickly, and took off faster than the human eye could follow.

"Aw hell," Bulma growled, rounding on Krillen, "Go on, get her!"

"Okay, okay!" Krillen yelped, "Sheesh, I'm going."

He too took off and went after the alien.

"C'mon, faster." He huffed.

Nira couldn't hear Krillen come up from behind her over the roaring wind in her ears, but that didn't really matter since another alien had appeared in front of her.

"And where do you think you're going?" asked Piccolo in a gruff voice.

Nira screeched to a halt, stopping barely three feet from the Namek just as Krillen caught up. His stop was better than hers, he came to a halt beside the two of them.

Nira glowered at the Namek, "Teach me how to fight." She declared.

"Excuse me?"

"Teach me how to fight." Nira repeated, "If you won't there is absolutely no reason I should be here."

"There are better ways about asking for lessons then running away." Krillen commented.

Nira glared at the shorter man impatiently, "I need proper training. I can't do it myself, so teach me."

"Why me?" Piccolo inquired.

"Because you knocked me out." She stated. "I already know the basics. My power level was a thousand fifty three when I was five, but I need to get stronger."

"And why should I help you with that?" the Namek asked, crossing his arms.

Nira got closer to the Namek, her gaze hard, "Because who knows what might happen if I were to lose my temper without the ability to control it. I could seriously hurt someone, or myself, if I were to lose it. Its happened before, tore up half of the planet I was on before I was able to regain control of myself."

"Are you threatening our planet?" Krillen growled.

"No," Nira answered, "I'm warning you. If I don't get powerful enough to control myself when I turn I can't promise anyone's safety."

Krillen studied the girl shrewdly, "What do you mean by 'change'?"

"She means like when Vegeta and Goku when they see the full moon with their tails on." He pointed to Nira's tail, which had been swishing side to side anxiously.

Putting the pieces together, Nira's tail went still and her hands flew to her hair, tugging a bit of it out. "What?" she asked nervously.

"Your tail should be the supply of your powers, just like a Saiyans." Piccolo smirked, "Which means we just need to pull it out and-"

"You can't do that!" Nira shrieked.

"Why not?" Krillen asked.

"You can't pull my tail out, you'd kill me!" she warned them, holding her hands out in front of her warily, "Our tails can't just be pulled off like a Saiyans, we have Namek in us to! My tail is directly connected to my spine, if you were to try to pull it off you'd pull out that too!"

Krillen cocked his head to the side, "How do you know that?"

"What? Don't you think my ancestors tried that?" she cried, taking her tail in both hands and twisting it anxiously. "We're peaceful people, when their emotions ran to high and they rampaged they were disgusted! They tried figuring out other ways around it, believe me, even when I was young they were still trying to figure out a way." Nira explained quickly.

"Peaceful people don't usually fight for sport." Piccolo mused.

"For sport, not to kill!" Nira shouted.

"What about you wanting to kill the Saiyan that killed your brothers than?" he asked, clearly not believing it.

"That's different!" Nira snarled, "He killed my brothers, even we Morakians had our bad eggs. Whenever one of them did something as cruel as kill maliciously they would be sent to death!" there were angry tears in her eyes now, "I'm sure there are awful Namakians too!"

Krillen's eyes widened as he gazed Piccolo warily. Piccolo's face didn't seem to have changed, except for his eyes narrowing minutely.

Krillen decided that the time called for a change of subject. "Why can't we just try cutting of the tail?" he asked.

"Didn't I say that they tried everything?" Nira said. "If you were to cut off my tail my whole body will be impaired. I'd probably lose feeling in the whole bottom half of my body. I've seen it happen."

The black haired man gulped, "Gee, that doesn't sound fun at all."

She turned back to the Namek, "There's no other way of going around it, teach me."

"Piccolo?" Krillen called, jerking his head to the side. Piccolo understood and followed Krillen back down to Earth.

"Stay." Krille told Nira, whom merely narrowed her eyes then shrugged.

"You did teach Gohan." Krillen whispered when they had landed, "And he was a lot younger and a lot less trained. Why not give her a chance?"

"Other than the fact that she's kind of out of her mind?" Piccolo snorted.

Krillen huffed, "If what I've heard from Bulma is true than she witnessed her brothers and her planet die right in front of her eyes. I think anyone would be a little worse for wear after something like that."

Piccolo didn't look convinced.

"Fine just – peak inside her head, that way you'll be able to tell if she's okay to train." Krillen persuaded.

Piccolo paused for a moment for inclining his head. He searched up in Nira's head for any clues.

_It's rude to break into someone's mind without their permission._

Piccolo blinked, mildly surprised.

_Fine, here, free reign._

Piccolo delved deeper into the Morakian's mind, finding out her abilities and just how broken her mind really was.

When she passed his inspection he sighed audibly, "Fine, come on down now." He said.

NIra floated down back to Earth with the other two.

Krillen looked at her in confusion, "You heard?"

"Every word." She nodded, "These ears aren't just for show." She said, moving her ears forward in emphasis.

Nira looked at Piccolo, "So?"

The Namek nodded once, "We start at dawn."


	3. Well of Power

"Good morning, Nira." Bulma greeted from the kitchen, "Those clothes fitting you a little better?"

Nira picked at the white and blue striped tank top, "Yeah, its fine. Thanks again."

"No prob." The blue haired woman stated, returning to her paper and coffee.

**A Few Weeks Earlier**

"_There is absolutely no way nothing that filthy or torn will be keeping a place in this home." Bulma stated, pointing at Nira's tattered space suit the afternoon that Nira returned._

"_I don't see anything wrong with it." Nira mumbled, blushing._

"_Well, that makes one of us." Bulma huffed, she tugged at Nira's arm, "Come with me, I'll have some clothes that should fit you."_

_Nira let herself be dragged into Bulma's room. She stood awkwardly by the door as Bulma rifled through her drawers._

"_Here." Bulma said, flinging some clothes at Nira, whom caught them easily._

_In her arms was one gray t – shirt with a rose pattern on it and the other was a plain white blouse. She had one pair of khaki shorts and a pair of fashionably ripped jeans. _

"_I'd offer some shoes and socks but…" she studied the toes of Nira's shoes which were worn and a few clawed toes could be seen from it. "I don't think that would be a good idea."_

_The black haired girl shrugged, "We didn't wear shoes in my home planet, we adapted pretty quickly to the heat of the desert and the soles of our feet grew tough. I only wore the shoes because the planet I was snowed all the time. Snow and I don't agree, really." She explained._

_Bulma chuckled, "I can understand that statement. Go on," she said, gesturing to the clothes, "go try them on. I expect to see you in each outfit. Blouse with the khakis, tank with the jeans." She pointed to the bathroom that connected to her bedroom._

_Nira entered the bathroom cautiously before closing the door behind her._

_She tried on the blouse and khakis on first. The blouse felt a little tight and so did the butt of her jeans. She opened the door and walked out. Bulma circled her a little before finally stopping a few feet in front of Nira, a hand on her chin._

"_They're both a little tight. I guess you're a size or two bigger than me, but they'll do for now. I'll go shopping for you soon. Okay, go try the other one." She turned Nira around and pushed her towards the bathroom._

_Sighing softly, Nira tried on the other outfit. The tank top was a little stretchier than the blouse and more comfortable. She wasn't so sure about the jeans, the material felt like hell on her legs._

_With a frown on her face she opened the door for Bulma to inspect her._

"_Don't like it?"_

"_The pants," Nira nodded, "What the hell are they made out of?"_

"_They're jeans." Bulma said, "Hmm, Vegeta has the same problem with jeans, he hates them. Guess I should tick that off the list. Other than that, looks good." She patted Nira on the back, you can give me the jeans back and put on the khakis, those will have to do for now." _

"_Nice tattoos." Bulma said offhandedly as she checked for the size of the pants, "Where did you get them?"_

_She was talking about the black, zigzag pattern just above the elbow on Nira's right arm, the white, squiggly one on her left, and finally the gray pattern of circles on her neck._

"_They're tribal." She stated. "The zigzag pattern means body, in other words it means I'm a warrior, the white one means mind, meaning I can read peoples minds, for some it means they can see the future. I got them both when I was three." _

"_You can read minds?" gasped the blue haired woman. _

"_Well, it's taxing, and I can only do it when I'm having contact with people, but yeah."_

_Bulma hummed, "Whats that one mean?" she asked, pointing to the one around her neck. _

_Nira touched the tattoo shyly, the other hand twisting her hair. "That one was made especially for me, you see, I'm a…" she bit her lip and continued to tug at her black locks, "a mutant. This indicates I'm different."_

"_Why are you a mutant?" asked Bulma, checking the tag on Nira's shirt_

"_I… well, its hard to explain."_

"_I've got time."_

_Nira grinned a little, "Well, you see, I can create sound with my ki. It sort of works like – you know – why don't I just show you."_

_The girl held out the palm of her hand and almost immediately little ripples of ki could be seen rising into the air accompanied by a soothing, if not haunting, melody._

"_That's amazing." Bulma said in awe, "but isn't it just ki manipulation?" _

_Nira shrugged, "People in my village tried over and over again to try to do it but none could. I guess it takes a different version of manipulation to do this."_

"_Anything else this can do other than make creepy music?" Bulma asked._

"_I can make it so it could pop the blood vessels in your brain and kill you." She stated matter – of – factly._

_Bulma looked repulsed but oddly curious. _

"_Hmm." She hummed, "Well, you better get out of those jeans before they make you break out. Just give me the space suit before you leave, kay?"_

_Nira nodded, "Alright." Before heading back into the bathroom._

**DBZ**

"Morning, Trunks." Nira smiled, taking a plate full of eggs, bacon, and hash browns.

"Mornin'" Trunks was able to say around a mouthful of food.

Nira took a seat near him and began to dig in herself. Bulma watched the scene, shaking her head. "Why did she have to have a Saiyan appetite too…"

It was true, although Morakians could survive on water alone but they had Saiyan appetites. It made living on a desert with little food practically unbearable but they appreciated what they had for the most part.

When Nira was finished she sat back and patted her belly, "Thanks, Bulma."

The scientist smiled, "Well, I couldn't just let you starve now could I? There's always more." She reassured when her wristwatch beeped.

"Oh – crap! I'm late for a meeting. Good bye sweety." She kissed Trunks on the head and gave Vegeta the same treatment as he entered the kitchen still looking as grumpy as ever.

He grunted in response as Bulma hurried out of the door before glaring at Nira, whom had gotten used to the treatment ever since the first night she had arrived there when Vegeta glared in a threatening way whenever he thought she wasn't looking, and even when he knew she was looking.

Nira could feel Piccolo's ki coming closer and she sighed and got up, ruffling Trunk's hair like Bulma had. "See you later, squirt."

"Not a squirt!" he shouted at her.

**First Training Session with Piccolo**

"_You can't use your eyes for everything!" she heard Piccolo snarl. "Or your nose and ears, there will be times when you won't be able to rely on any of those things. You have to feel your surroundings."_

"_I'm_ trying_." Nira muttered, her patience wearing thin._

"Try_ harder." He growled as she felt a sharp kick to her gut, knocking the wind out of her. _

"_Use your ki." He ordered from somewhere near her right. "Use your ki until your able to feel someone else's."_

_Nira took a deep breath and tried to relax. They had been working on her ability to detect others ki for hours. Bruises and welts were no doubt going to be found all over when she gets back to Bulma's._

_The blindfold that had been put over her eyes was put on so tight it was cutting into her sensitive ears, which somewhat impaired her ability to hear. _

_Nira called for her ki and began releasing it in waves. To her, it felt more like an echo than a search. One pulse… nothing…. Two pulse…. nothing…. Three pulse…. _

_She put her arms up just in time. Piccolo's fist came in contact with her arms making a _thud_. A dull ache went through the flesh but with the glow of victory in her veins it was easy to ignore._

_She heard Piccolo grunt in pleasant surprise. _

_One pulse… Two... DODGE_

_She felt the air of Piccolo's punch pass her. A grin was beginning to appear on her face. This was possibly the most fun she had in years._

_That's how they did the rest of her first day of training. Dodging and blocking kick after punch after blast from her new mentor. Of course she wasn't able to always dodge from him. He caught her in the side and once singed the fur off of her tail, causing her to yelp in fear. Another Saiyans and Morakians had in common was that their tails were their weaknesses, and Nira never got the chance to train hers._

_At the end of the day, when Nira was finally able to take off the blindfold and sit in the grass for a rest._

"_Was that okay?" She asked, wiping off the sweat off her forehead with her shirt. _

_Piccolo grunted, "You learn fast, that's a good thing."_

_Nira snorted, "I'm taking that as a yes." _

**DBZ**

She tore out of the house to meet with Piccolo, whom was floating by a tree with his arms crossed. She took to the air as her mentor turned to fly away.

When they got to their usual training grounds, which was full of small mountains and bluffs she stopped.

"So, what is it today?" asked Nira, whom was stretching.

"I think its time to see how far you can raise your power level." Explained the Namek, "If you really are more like a Saiyan than your power is almost limitless, but we don't know how the Namekian part will react. I think it's best if we know before we have to."

The alien girl nodded, "Okay, how do I do that?"

"Just focus on the energy inside of you and release, but slowly at first." He grunted.

Nira took her battle stance and focused on the well of power inside of her.

Just like Piccolo had asked she let out little by little, she kept her eyes closed but she could feel the energy begin to swirl around her like a miniature tornado, and still she focused on the well.

She kept going until she felt Piccolo tell her to stop. Opening her eyes, she let her power level drop. Blinking once, she gazed the pair before her.

Gohan was staring at her incredulously paired with a goofy smile. Piccolo, on the other hand, eyes were also wide but there was no smile to be accompanied with it.

"Um," she began but was cut off by Gohan.

"Holy cow, that was awesome!" he blurted, "You must be as strong as me, maybe even stronger!" he sounded positively delighted.

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing…" Piccolo stated.

Nira's eyes widened, giving off the effect of a kicked puppy with her ears folding backward. She knew that Gohan was possibly the strongest being on the planet. She heard about the battle with Frieza and Cell and so she knew that he was the first to go to Super Saiyan 2.

**DBZ**

"_A Super Saiyan?" Nira asked, a bite of pear tangling out of her mouth comically. "Super Saiyans are _real?!"

"_Yeah," said Gohan, "My dad was the first one, Goku, he became one during the battle with Frieza." He took a bite out of a pear himself, "Then I was the first to become a Super Saiyan 2 in the battle with Cell."_

_Nira chewed thoughtfully as she watched Goten and Trunks spare in the lawn._

"_Something wrong?" Gohan asked, his brows crunched together in worry._

_Nira shook her head, "Well," she began, thinking about the right way to word it, "I was wondering… if there's such a thing as a Super Saiyan, what if there's a Super Morak?" _

_Gohan cocked his head in thought, "That's a good question, but there's still the fact that there's Namekian in you too. There's the possibility that that can hold you back." He pointed out._

_Nira sighed and put her chin in her hand, "Yeah, that's true." she agreed, "So, whats it like to become a Super Saiyan?" she asked._

_Gohan shrugged, finishing his pear, "It just… feels like there's so much power, and your body finally can contain it all. There's no holding back, theres no need to."_

_Nira pouted as she watched Goten land a hit on Trunks, "Sounds pretty awesome." _

_Gohan chuckled, "Yeah, it kinda is." _

_The wristwatch in his wrist beeped, startling him. "Its that time already?!" he cried, shooting to his feet. _

"_Where you going?" Nira asked curiously. _

"_I've got to get home so I can train Videl!" Gohan explained quickly, "C'mon Goten, we've got to go!" _

_Goten slumped a little but went to Gohan as he called his cloud, Kinto'un. Before he hopped on Goten tugged at his pants and asked him something._

"_Can I go see if I can…?" Nira heard._

_He obviously didn't need to go any further because Gohan nodded, "Okay, just be fast."_

_Goten ran up to Nira, looking bashful. _

"_Yes, Goten?" Nira inquired. _

"_Can I…?" he pointed to her ears._

_Her ears didn't have any noticeable fur on them but they were covered in thin hairs that gave them a silky texture._

_Nira nodded, smiling and showed Goten her ears. Goten patted them softly, obviously surprised by the silky feeling. _

"_Trunks, you've got to feel her ears!" he shouted back at his friend._

_Trunks cantered over to them with folded arms, obviously trying to pass off as the mature one. Nira felt her lips tilt a little, he reminded her of herself when she was his age with two little brothers to set an example for. _

_He reached out and patted them. He blinked with surprise as he felt the silky hairs._

_Her fixed his face back to his mature façade and asked, "Why do they fold over like that?"_

"_Well, you see," she began to explain, "Morakians ears are more pointed, like Piccolo's, when we're younger. When we get to the age of about fifteen or fourteen they begin to fold over because the cartilage, that's the thing in your ears, begins to weaken at that age. They stay like that for the rest of our lives."_

_Goten looked like he hadn't gotten any of that but Trunks nodded as if he did, which Nira knew he probably didn't._

"_Goten!" Gohan called, startling Goten. _

"_Thank you, Ms. Nira!" he said._

_She waved it off, "Any time." _

**DBZ**

"Why wouldn't it be?" she asked.

"You said it yourself," Piccolo stated, "If you lose your head you can be a danger to yourself and others."

Nira frowned, "But if you train me I can control it!"

"What happens if you lose your cool?" Gohan inquired.

Nira turned her attention to her friend, "Saiyans turn into apes when they see the full moon, well Morakians do the same thing only on a smaller scale and it happens whenever our emotions run high. Some of them were able to change at will after extensive training." She explained, "If I were to train enough than I could do the same." She turned back to Piccolo.

"You only have to keep training me." She stated firmly. "Then I'll be able to control it and it won't have to be like that."

Piccolo glared at her, obviously unsure about if that was actually going to help or not.

"Besides, its not like I can turn Super Morakian." Nira huffed, "Not one Morakian was ever able to become one."

Piccolo continued to glare, "We'll see about that."


	4. To Live

Nira stared outside, sleep had been threatening to pull her under again but she wasn't ready for it just yet. She wasn't ready for the night terrors to reclaim her. She had to just keep going somehow.

Sighing, she looked up at a twinkling star and thought about an old tale the elders used to tell.

**DBZ**

"_Our ancestors were ordered to do terrible things," Roe, the eldest and the last direct descendent of the ancestors began to say to the circle of children. "Frieza, the one that created them, told them to destroy civilizations, whole species, so their planets could be sold to others._

_The first planet our ancestors invaded, and sadly wiped out, they looked up at the sky and saw the stars twinkle overhead, and began to cry._

_Then something very peculiar happened." She continued, "The souls of the people they had slaughtered rose out of their bodies and joined with their tears. Together they flew upward into the sky to join the stars. Each soul twinkled among each other, making the sky a little brighter._

_When our ancestors began their way back to Frieza's space pod they found the way horribly dark, from the weight in their chests bringing them down or the darkness of the cruel universe enveloping them no one was quiet sure. Asteroids were coming at them at all angles, then, a star appeared to light their way, and they arrived safely._

_Don't you see?" Roe pleaded, "The souls of the deceased saved our people. That was the day our ancestors swore never to kill another._

_And when you cry at night for those who are gone," she said softly, "know that they are wiping your tears away and protecting you, and when we're gone, we'll be joining them in the great expanse." She finished waving one wrinkled hand to the dark night that was littered with the bright stars._

**DBZ**

Nira felt a lone tear roll down her face as she stared up at space, and wondered if her mother, her father, her brothers, her people, were looking right back at her.

**DBZ**

Nira tried to keep her eyes open as she gnawed at her twelfth piece of toast.

"Morning, Nira." Bulma yawned as she entered the kitchen and headed for the coffee machine.

"Oh," she blinked, "Did you make coffee?" she asked Nira.

The alien girl nodded to her cup, which had long gotten cold. "Tastes like shit." She mumbled.

Bulma shook her head, a grin on her face, "It might taste better with some creamer and sugar." She pointed out, picking up Nira's cup and putting it in the microwave before getting some for herself.

The black haired girl shrugged, making an irritable grunt.

Bulma took a sip of coffee, studying her guest over the lip of her mug. "Didn't sleep again?"

Nira blinked slowly up at the scientist before nodding.

Sighing, she set her coffee down sharply. "You're killing yourself, y'know." She stated, her tone angry, "What is it? Don't think there's time for sleep? Want to keep training until you pass out-"

"Nightmares." Nira interrupted, her tone tired and icy. "I have nightmares."

Bulma's face fell a little as she sat back, blinking, "Everyone has nightmares." She said.

With her forehead in one hand, Nira gazed up at Bulma with one blurry eye, "Does everyone get them every time they fall asleep? Does everyone hear their brothers, crying for them to save them as they're killed or their planet being blown to bits every time they close their eyes?" she growled.

Bulma was saved from saying anything by the beeping of the microwave. Nira pushed herself up muttering, "Excuse me." Before leaving the kitchen.

She didn't see Vegeta leaning on the wall, obviously listening in, or Bulma's expression of deep concern.

**DBZ**

"What did you say to my mom?" Nira heard Trunks bark at her.

Nira half – turned her head to stare at the purple haired boy with one eye. She was busy training a move that Piccolo had been teaching her. She put the foot she had in the air back on the ground and turned fully to Trunks.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Don't play coy!" Trunks growled, "My moms upset and its about something you said, isn't it?"

Nira felt her hand twist her hair as she looked at the ground, feeling a little lost. "I just told her truth." She said explained, "She wanted to know something and I told her the truth."

Trunks folded his arms, looking angry. He obviously wasn't going anywhere until he got some straight up answers.

Nira kicked the ground, "She wanted to know why I wasn't sleeping. I told her I have nightmares."

Trunks raised one purple eye - brow, "That isn't enough to get my mom upset."

Nira rolled her eyes but accidently pulled out a lock of hair in the process.

"It was probably what they're about." She admitted, "You sure you want to know?"

Trunks looked a little uneasy but nodded.

Sighing, she answered, "I dream about my brothers getting killed and my planet getting destroyed. Although, I probably said it a little more angrily."

Trunks looked her up and down before unfolding his arms and walking forward. He awkwardly took Nira's hand and squeezed, "I'm sorry about your brothers and your planet." He muttered, blushing a little.

Nira shook her head, sighing again, and sat down so she was more Trunk's height. "No use being sorry about it." She said, squeezing his smaller hand before releasing it. Tucking her head between her knees she closed her eyes and tried to clear her head.

She heard Trunks take a seat beside her. All was quiet for a moment before he asked, "Can't you do anything about the dreams?" he asked.

"Not really." Nira answered, her head still between her knees and her black hair sticking up more than ever. "Nothing that I ever figured out anyway."

Trunks looked up at the older girl, his brows furrowed, opened his mouth but quickly shut it.

Nira heard the click of teeth and half un-hid her face to look at the boy, "What?"

He shrugged, looking sheepish, "Its… its nothing…"

Nira stared the boy down until he finally gave in.

"Fine, just stop staring at me like that!" he grumbled, "Its just… have you ever tried sleeping with another person? Like in the same bed?"

Nira rose one eye brow and shook her head, "I've been alone for the majority of my life, Trunks." She pointed out.

"Oh, right." He mumbled, looking up at the clouds.

For a while all was quiet before Nira asked, "You wanna spare?"

Trunks looked up at her and a grin lit up his face, "Heck yeah!"

**DBZ**

"Hey, Nira! Hey, Piccolo!" Gohan greeted.

Nira blocked a kick from Piccolo, "Hey, Gohan." she grunted, trying to land a punch on her mentor, "Kinda busy."

"You can't be so cautious." Piccolo stated, "When you're face to face with your opponent you won't have time to think things through."

Without warning Nira threw a kick at Piccolo's gut, causing all of the wind to get knock of him. He put both arms around it, his eyes popping.

Taking her chance she rose her hands, clenched together, above her head and threw them back down on Piccolo, causing Piccolo to hit the ground, sending dust and rocks flying.

Flying back to the ground she squatted so Piccolo could see her face. "So what you're saying is go on instinct, right?"

"Don't get cocky." He grunted.

Gohan grinned before piping in, "So, you guys have a minute?"

Nira got back up and held a hand out for Piccolo to take.

"Sure," she said, helping her mentor up. "Whats going on?"

"Well, the Budokai is going to be held in a few months." Gohan blurted, smiling, "I'm going with Videl and I was wondering if you guys would be interested."

"Budokai?" Nira inquired, cocking her head to the side, her ears perking up.

"It's a competition." Piccolo explained, "A fighting competition where the strongest warriors fight for first place."

Nira immediately perked up, "A fighting competition?!" she said, grinning hugely and looking very excited. "We had those on my planet – when is it?"

"Um, in a few months?" Gohan mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not exactly sure. But Krillen, Eighteen, Vegeta, Trunks, Goten, and my dad are going too."

Nira's hands were positively trembling, either with excitement or memories of the competitions back home she wasn't completely sure.

Gohan chuckled when he saw that her tail was wagging back and forth so fast it was almost impossible to see it. "Excited, huh?"

Nira nodded, "This is just – Ahaha!" she punched the air, "I love fighting competitions!" she explained giddily.

"Did you participate in any back in your home planet?" he asked.

Nira nodded, "I beat every single one in the junior division, the ones that were only five. That's why I got this," she pulled back her sleeve to show the 'body' tattoo. "Because I was deemed a warrior."

Piccolo smirked, "We'll see how well you are against Goku, then we'll see how much of a warrior you really are."

Nira frowned at her mentor. She knew that Goku was by far the strongest being this planet ever saw and the chances of beating him were probably very slim, but the chance of fighting a warrior like him made her blood pump.

Of course she never said any of that out loud.

Instead she settled for, "Doesn't matter, even if I get defeated I'll just get stronger anyway." She smirked, "I'm part Saiyan, aye."

The Namek rolled his eyes.

Turning back to Gohan, Nira grinned, "Looking forward to it. I'm in."

Gohan grinned, "Piccolo?"

Piccolo grunted, "Sure."

"Great!" said the black haired man, "See you soon, say hi to Bulma for me, Nira!" he called at them as he took off.

"See you!" Nira shouted back before turning back to her mentor. "Well, guess this means more training for me." She said giddily, "Lets get to it, shall we."

Piccolo chuckled as he got in his fighting stance, "Alright, you're asking for it."

"Bring it on, Green Man!"

**DBZ**

Nira was playing around with the music she made with her ki when she heard a knock at the door.

"Coming." She called, zipping to the door and opening it.

"Hey, Nira." Trunks mumbled, holding a pillow and wearing his pajamas.

"Trunks?" Nira questioned, "Why are you in your pajamas?"

"Its almost two in the morning." He stated, giving her an incredulous look.

Nira looked backwards out the windows in her room. Sure enough it was pitch dark outside. Running a hand through her sticky – up hair she looked back down at her pint – sized visitor.

"Huh," she grunted, "Didn't realize it was so late. Whats wrong?"

Trunks huffed, looking down at his feet. "I had a nightmare." He explained, "And I don't want to wake up mom and dad."

"You mean you don't want your dad thinking you're a pansy." Is what she wanted to say, but instead she leaned against the door - frame and nodded for him to go on.

"I thought… maybe its okay if I…" he pouted.

Nira immediately understood what he was trying to say. "You want to sleep in my bed tonight, is that it?" she asked kindly.

Trunks nodded.

Nira breathed through her nose before nodding, "Alright, keep the door open though." She said, walking to her bed. "Take a seat squirt, I need get ready for bed."

Trunks got on the left side of the bed and threw the covers over him. After a few minutes Nira came out of the bathroom wearing an overlarge batman shirt and striped pajama pants.

She frowned a little when she saw Trunks on the left side, that's where she usually slept, but rather than tell him to scooch she shrugged and took the right side.

The two slept back to back of each other, both still awake.

"Nira?" Trunks whispered.

"Yeah?" she whispered back.

"Do you miss your family?" he asked.

Nira blinked in surprise, she hadn't expected him to ask that.

"Every day." She answered truthfully.

"How do you deal with it?" the boy breathed.

Nira thought about it for a minute before saying softly, "You can't… deal with it. But," she continued as a thought entered her head, "you _can_ learn to live with it."

"Aren't those the same things?" he accused.

"No, I don't think so." She said gently, "Dealing with it… is being able to go day to day without it really making a difference. Living with it is learning how to push through each day even though its hard, and never forgetting it."

It was quiet as Trunks mulled this over, "So… what you're saying is… Dealing with it is like learning how to how to get over it but living with it is pushing through without ever forgetting?"

"Yeah," Nira agreed, "Its like that."

"So, sometimes its better to live with it than dealing with it?" he asked.

"Sometimes." Nira affirmed. "Its hard, but it makes every day feel like an accomplishment."

Nira could feel Trunks breath from behind her, "Night, Nira."

"Good night, squirt."

"Not a squirt."

"Course not."

**DBZ**

Nira woke that morning more than a little confused.

First, she had no nightmares that she could remember.

And second, she was sure that there was a little breathing thing curled up beside her back.

She slowly got up to see what it was only to see a shock of purple hair sticking from the covers. The night, or, er, morning, before came back to her. Sighing, she gently climbed out of the bed so she wouldn't startle the boy. She grabbed some clothes and went to change in the bathroom.

When she got back out she noticed that Trunks was still sleeping soundly. She went to wake him up, except when she saw his peaceful, sleeping face.

Her heart squeezed a little, having a flashback of her little brothers, before shaking herself out of it. She exited the room and closed the door softly so nothing would disturb him. It was a Sunday, so he didn't have to worry about school.

Nira ran into Bulma on her way to the kitchen.

"Hi, Bulma." She smiled, in a better mood than she had in a while.

"Hey," Bulma greeted, picking up the paper from the table.

The two walked inside the kitchen to see that the maids had already finished breakfast.

"What are these?" Nira asked, pointing at a stack of square, pocket marked, pastries.

"Those are waffles, silly." Bulma chortled, "Dish up." She said, piling some on her own plate.

Nira slapped twelve of them, including butter and syrup, onto her plate and took a tentative bite. She grinned around the mouthful, her tail wagging in delight.

"I take it you like them." Bulma smirked.

"They're delicious!" she announced, stuffing another forkful in her already full mouth.

The two were silent as they ate. When Bulma finished she turned to Nira, "So, Nira, whens your birthday?"

"Biffdah?" she asked around a mouthful of food.

"Swallow before you speak, that's gross." The scientist scolded, grinning crookedly.

Nira did so before continuing, "Whats a birthday?"

"Didn't you ever celebrate your birthday?" Bulma asked incredulously, "Y'know, the day that you're born."

Nira thought about it for a second, "Well, yeah, kind of."

"Kind of?"

"Its probably nothing like your human traditions," She explained, "but on somebodies… birthday they had the opportunity to ask for one thing and their family would have to do it if they could."

"Like what?" Bulma encouraged.

Nira shrugged, "I always asked to be able to fight my mom, she was one of the best warriors, or train my ability to read minds with my dad, he had the same ability but he was a lot better at it than I am."

"Alright," the blue haired woman nodded understandingly, "what day is it?"

"Umm…" Nira thought, her brow furrowing, "Well, I'm not really sure how long I was in the cryochamber… and I don't know how to convert time to Earth time…"

"Its approximately the same." Came a rough voice from the kitchen entrance.

Vegeta stood there, looking surly as he came inside and began to stack waffles on his plate, muttering, "Where's the meat?"

"Oh… kay then." Nira mumbled, thinking hard. "Well, if it is the same… what season is it?"

"Late Spring, May." Bulma answered.

"Then I should be turning nineteen in about…. Four earth weeks." Nira estimated.

Bulma grinned, "Great! We have just enough time to plan for a birthday party then!"

"Wait – what?" the brown eyed woman chocked.

Bulma winked, "You'll see." She said cryptically before returning to her paper and coffee, leaving Nira staring at her, completely flabbergasted.


	5. Authors Note

**Authors Note:**

**Okay, like it is said in the summery this story is another take on another DBZ fanfiction that I published a while ago. In that story, Nira did not have a love interest.**

**BUT**

**I am willing to give her one in this story BUT I NEED ANSWERS STRAIGHT AWAY. ****As in like 2 days! All of that end at April second!**

**DEADLINE CHANGE: This is going on until April 6th**

**She cannot be paired up with Vegeta, Krillen, Gohan, Goku, Bulma, ChiChi, Videl and Goten and Trunks (I think that's pretty obvious but *****shrugs*****) **

**If you guys want Nira to have a love interest please let me know in the review or message me, and if you want her to be paired in someone in particular make sure you write that down as well. 3 votes required for it to happen.**

**I may not reply but rest assured I will be checking (I'm just not very good with things like that I get all flustered and awkward and I always end up embarrassing myself so…)**

**Thank you for reading my fanfiction! Next chapter will be birthday party, training, and Nira's new family growing!**

**I WILL NOT BE UPDATING UNTIL THIS POLL IS OVER.**

**Polls for Potential Couple:**

**Yamcha: 1**


	6. Don't Let it Show

Nira stood outside the Gravity Chamber, patiently waiting for its 'owner' to show up. Her tail swished back and forth on the grass, it was a humid day and she could already feel sweat dripping down her neck. She reached up and tugged at her long mane.

_Maybe I should ask Bulma for a knife so I can cut it…_ she thought to herself.

Before she could make up her mind she saw Vegeta and Trunks coming out of the house towards the Chamber. He saw her a little ways away and his eyes visibly narrowed.

"What is it Morak?" he barked, crossing his arms.

Trunks stood a little ways away, watching them.

"I want to use the Gravity Chamber so I can prepare for the Budokai." She explained simply, "Can I?"

"Don't you have lessons with the Namek?" he growled.

"Not at the moment." Nira shrugged, "I've already had my lessons today."

Vegeta glared at her, "Why should I let you use it?" he asked.

"Its not like I'm going to break it." she huffed, "I won't slow you down, the planet was stranded on was at least three hundred times Earths gravity."

At that precise moment, Bulma exited the house on her way to the lab. "Whats going on here?" she asked as she passed them.

"Nira wants to train in the Gravity Chamber." Said Trunks hurriedly.

"I was just asking Vegeta for permission." Nira explained.

"Well, I don't see any harm in it." Bulma grinned, "Train hard!" she called at them as she continued to the labs.

Nira suppressed a grin as she gazed upon the frustrated look on Vegeta's face. "Fine." He snapped, "Don't blame me if your lungs collapse on themselves." And he entered the Gravity Room.

Smirking in triumph, the Morakian said, "Race you!"

Trunks's face lit up, "You're on!" he shouted back, zipping towards the entrance.

**DBZ**

Nira stood on her hands as beads of sweat rolled down her face. They had just gotten to seventy – five times the gravity of Earth and she was starting to feel the strain, she had gotten too used to the Earth gravity, but she turned a deaf ear to them. She wasn't going to let Vegeta have the last laugh just yet.

She turned to see that Trunks was also struggling a little. Every lift of a foot was an effort.

Nira took a deep breath and did four cartwheels before landing on her feet, wiping her hands on her training pants.

"Having trouble?" Vegeta mocked.

"Nah," Nira grunted, starting some jumping jacks, "M' fine."

Vegeta's smirk grew. He had to hand it to her, that she was persistent, if not stubborn.

"We'll see about that." He grunted, turning the dial.

"_One hundred times Earths gravity."_ The AI stated.

Nira barely registered what it had said when the pressure grew without warning. Nira bent over in her surprise for a moment before lifting herself back to full height.

"Sneaky." She snarled.

Vegeta grunted in response before starting some push – ups.

Trunks had also been taken by surprise and he was beginning to catch his breath.

Leaving the two to their own devices, Nira started some laps around the chamber, humming to herself.

When Vegeta saw that the change in gravity hardly held her back he returned to the knob.

"_One hundred fifty times Earths gravity."_

The surprise of the weight wasn't so much of a shock after the first one, so Nira nearly bent her head that time and continued her laps. After a few minutes she saw that Trunks was having trouble walking. His face was screwed up in effort.

"Don't overexert yourself, Trunks. Leave the room." Vegeta told him. "One hundred fifty times gravity is too much for you."

"Goten called last night," Trunks panted, "he told me he's gonna enter the Budokai! I'm gonna go too, then!"

Nira grinned as she threw punches into the air. Boy, this kid was stubborn.

She distinctly heard Vegeta hum, "They think this is child's play." Before hearing Trunks, seemingly giving up. "I can't keep this up anymore…" he gasped, "Gotta become Super Saiyan."

Nira whipped her head around, "Huh?!"

"What?" Vegeta gasped.

Suddenly there was a huge spike in ki coming from Trunks and the room began to glow. Nira had to blink away the stars before she could see Trunks past the firey ki that was swirling around him.

She gaped at the boy and the power rolling off of him. _This kid can become a Super Saiyan_ she thought bleakly.

The purple head cackled as he sprung upward, showing off his ability, before running laps around Vegeta and Nira.

"This is easy now!" he boasted.

Vegeta stared at his son disbelievingly, muttering, "Incredible… he can turn into the Legendary Super Saiyan that easily."

Nira simply shook her head in amazement.

They watched as Tronks flipped end over end and zoom about the room, both in unsettled confusion and pleasant surprise.

Then, a thought entered Nira's brain.

"Trunks," she shouted to get his attention, "can Goten become a Super Saiyan too?"

"Yup." He confirmed, coming to a halt.

Nira swallowed as Vegeta grumbled, "Is there a sale on Super Saiyans going on or what?" before suddenly turning to Trunks, "Fight with me." He ordered.

Trunks looked baffled, "Impossible!" he chocked, "You're way stronger than me, Dad!"

Before Nira could interfere, Vegeta got into a battle stance, "Go ahead!" he drawled, "If you can touch my face I'll take you to the amusement park!"

"Really?" Trunks asked, his face one of extreme anticipation and excitement, "Are you sure?"

And at that moment Nira knew any talking anybody out of anything was not going to happen.

Trunks, too, got in a battle stance, breathing, "Here goes…"

Vegeta waited for him to move, "Try your hardest." He encouraged.

Nira raised one eye - brow, not in her whole time being with the Briefs had she heard Vegeta encourage his son like this. She found it a pleasant surprise. She folded her arms as she watched the showdown between the father and son.

It was a flurry of movement that Nira wasn't able to follow with her eyes, but she kept a close watch on their ki. Trunks kept trying to hit his father in the face but Vegeta had been able to dodge every one so far. Trunk's efforts began to sky - rocket with every miss, something that Nira definitely noticed.

_He's going to do it._ She thought, her eye – brows furrowed, _He's going to land a hit._

Sure enough, amongst the storm of punches Nira could hear the unmistakable sound of fist against face.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the only time she heard that sound that day.

Vegeta threw a clenched fist at Trunks, sending the boy flying. Trunks landed on his head and collapsed in a heap. After a moment he struggled to lift himself up so he could see Vegeta, his face was bright red where he had punched him.

Nira bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from reacting. She knew by the boy's ki that he hadn't been hurt to badly, but she couldn't help the tense spasm that flew through her body or the flare of ki that erupted. For a second, she thought she just might've lost it, but at the last second, with some help from the pain she caused to her cheek, she had been able to keep herself in check.

She saw Vegeta half glance at her before returning his attention to his injured son.

"That's not fair…" Trunks whined, holding his face in one hand. "You countered…"

"I never said I wouldn't." he threw back.

"B-But…"

Nira could see a tear threatening to spill over the boys face and her resolve threatened to break. A muscle in her face twitched as a flashback to her childhood flew across her vision.

_She was standing over the older girl and boy, her face contorted in fury. _

"_DON'T YOU HURT MY BROTHERS." She roared, her control slipping away. "DON'T YOU TOUCH THEM."_

_Everything went dark as an almighty roar came from deep inside her._

…

_She woke up in her bed, her head hurting something awful._

_Putting on small hand to it, she realized it was sticky with her blood. There was a gash cut across it… but she didn't remember from what._

_Her father removed her hand, "Don't touch it," he scolded her._

_Nira let her hand fall beside her as she stared up at her fathers kindly face curiously, "What happened?" she whispered._

_Her father's dark eyes lost some of their twinkle for a moment before he answered, "You were protecting your brothers."_

"_The boy and the girl…." She trailed off._

"_Alive." Her father told her, "But you did make a mess of the plains." He admitted._

"_I didn't… I-?"_

"_You turned, yes." He answered truthfully, wiping away the blood off her forehead gently with a wet piece of linen._

_Nira swallowed, tears threatening to spill over her eyes, "Corren and Riz?"_

"_They're okay." He said as he finished cleaning her._

"_Mommy?"_

"_She's taking care of things." He explained._

_Nira nodded, failing to hold back her sobs. She hiccupped pitifully, "I'm sorry." She wept, "I'm sorry, Daddy."_

_Her father held her against him warmly, petting her dark hair away from her face, hushing her softly, "It'll be alright. It'll be alright…"_

Nira shook herself from the flashback and made her eyes see what was really in front of her.

"Don't cry!" Vegeta barked, "I'll take you to the amusement park. Tell me," he continued, "between you and Goten who is stronger?"

Trunks got to his feet, looking like he was feeling better than he had a moment ago. "Goten is a year younger than me," He stated, "and he can't even fly yet."

Blinking slowly, Nira sighed as she got back to training, she wasn't feeling too great after the flashback, but she didn't want them to know.

**DBZ**

"Why won't you just let me take you somewhere to get your hair cut?" Bulma snapped, handing Nira a pair of scissors.

"Um…." Nira thought. Truth be told she didn't have a valid reason for not letting Bulma take her to a hair stylist. Nira just felt more comfortable cutting her own hair, even though it would be for the first time. Morakians, like Saiyans, grew their hair to their full length and it would stop growing, but Nira's hair had gotten so long that it had reached past her butt and it was making training hard with all of the hair in the way.

She examined the scissors curiously as she found the words for her unease. "I would just like to cut my own hair…" she explained.

Bulma rolled her eyes and left, shaking her head and muttering about stubbornness.

Nira looked into the mirror in her bathroom and took hold of a chunk of thick black hair and began to cut.

By the time she was finished the scissors were a mangled mess. It seems that the blades weren't meant for the alien's tough locks. Black hair was piled up all around her and all over her clothes, it would be a hassle to clean up.

Nira blinked at her reflection and ran a hand through her hair, it was uneven and cut to about the back of the neck. Her hair was still sticking up in the back, giving the slight impression of the tail feathers of a rooster.

She nodded at herself, proud of her accomplishment and began to clean up.

**DBZ**

When Nira came downstairs for dinner the Briefs were sitting there, gawking at her.

"Wah haphen do yo air?" Trunks asked around a mouthful of spaghetti.

Running a nervous hand through it she answered, "I cut it. It was getting in the way."

Vegeta quickly recovered and returned to his meal like nothing was odd but Trunks and Bulma continued to stare. Nira shuffled awkwardly before taking a seat at the end of the table beside Trunks, facing Bulma.

As she began to dish up she heard Bulma sit up a bit.

"Oh, for God's sake, c'mere." She ordered, gesturing at Nira to lean forward. She did so, but there was a hint of caution to her movements. Moving her plate aside, Bulma reached for Nira's hair.

Nira stiffened slightly as Bulma took a lock of brown hair just to the side of her face and began to tug and twist it forcefully.

All was silent as Bulma worked on that lock of hair for what felt like forever. Finally, she let of Nira's hair and sat back in her chair.

"All done." She smirked.

The alien reached up in search of the lock of hair and was surprised when her hand met the taught braid. The end of the braid where it hadn't been braid was sticking straight up.

She grinned at Bulma, not completely sure if she was thankful or not, before returning to her food that was becoming cold.

**DBZ**

"Hey, Nira." The alien heard her host call from the living room.

Looking up from her bowl, which held melted ice cream that she had been playing with, she blinked. Nira quickly cleaned the soiled bowl before walking to the living room.

"Bulma?"

Bulma and Mrs. Briefs grinned up at her and motioned for her to take a seat. Nira sat down, a little sideways so there would be room for her tail, and waited patiently for Bulma and her mother to continue.

"We've been wondering what kind of food you would like served, dear." Mrs. Briefs chirped.

Nira cocked her head in thought, "Um, can we have pork chops and salad?"

Bulma nodded, scribbling down the preferred foods. "I know that's not it." She stated, looking up at Nira expectantly.

Flushing nervously, Nira ran her fingers over the thin braid that Bulma had put there. It was a lot better than pulling her hair out.

"I…" she thought, "loaded baked potatoes and pasta salad, meatball sandwiches…. And bacon."

"That's more like it." Bulma chortled, writing it all down.

"Alright, dear." Mrs. Briefs smiled serenely, "What about presents?"

"And the cake." Her daughter added.

Nira looked at one to the other nervously, "I – presents?" she asked, obviously flustered, "What are presents?"

Bulma and Mrs. Briefs blinked up at the alien before sharing a pointed look.

"We'll figure it out ourselves." Bulma said offhandedly, "You can worry about that later."

"I don't think the cake should be chocolate…" Mrs. Briefs murmured, looking at their list.

At the mention of chocolate, Nira visibly shivered. She only had chocolate once and needless to say it did not end well.

Trunks and Goten had challenged her to an ice cream eat off. Each of them piled four tubs of rocky road into their individual large salad bowls with two whole bottle of chocolate syrup, five bananas, and six cans of whipped each.

It was a close race, Nira had come in second after Goten with Trunks only two seconds behind. The food was delicious and Nira was more than sated with the enticing chocolaty wonder.

Until about two in the morning and she was trapped in the bathroom with food poisoning. Trunks and Goten were fine but Nira was still in the bathroom through lunch. Bulma had been able to figure out that it was the heavy amounts of processed sugar and a chemical commonly found in chocolate that caused her distress. Although she could still eat it but only in small amounts, Nira had been very cautious around the intoxicatingly delicious misery.

Bulma put her finger to her lip as she thought, "What about strawberry?" she asked, "with marshmallow frosting?"

Nira smiled, she had a soft spot for anything marshmallow, and nodded.

"Alright." The scientist finished, "That's it, go back to whatever you were doing, Nira."

Grinning a little anxiously, Nira turned on her heel and left for the Gravity Chamber.


	7. Surprise

"Happy Birthday!"

Nira stood in the front of the room, staring at the crowd of people in obvious surprise. Of course she had heard the people hurrying to their hiding spots but never had she actually thought they would all jump out at once, yelling at her.

The alien took a few steps back, looking over her shoulder to make sure that no one was behind her, and stopped at the doorway.

"So…." She hummed, feeling nervous, "What all this, than?"

"Its your birthday." Bulma stated, grinning, "We're throwing a party."

"Party?" Nira scoffed, looking around her. The room was covered in violet streamers and balloons. A buffet had been set up to the side of the room next to a great big cake that had a table all to itself. To Nira's relief she didn't smell anything chocolate.

Then she gazed at the crowd. Trunks and Goten were near the front, both wearing party hats and grinning manically. Gohan was standing with a woman whom Nira recognized as his mother, ChiChi, and Videl. She had met them when she was passing by their home on her way to Satan City after training.

She liked ChiChi well enough, although Nira suspects that she's a little put off by her obvious alien attributes. Videl and she kicked it off immediately, although Videl had asked if she and Gohan were "a thing" which Nira responded in the negative, after which they ignored training to talk about the Budokai.

Then there was the pig, Oolong, next to Krillen and his family. Nira and Eighteen didn't talk much, Nira found the scent of the metal and lack of ki unnerving and Eighteen didn't seem interested in making friends with her. Marron was timid around her for the first few times the family had come over but quickly warmed up to her. The blonde girl had taken to playing with Nira's tail, which was alarming at first for the alien, but she soon figured out how to keep her tail away from the toddlers hands while not upsetting her and keeping her busy with the chase rather than the catch. As for Krillen, she and him were friendly towards each other but they didn't know each other too well, they mostly talked about different battle techniques.

The alien spotted Vegeta lurking in the corner and Piccolo at the edge of the crowd, not too close but not too far away either. Neither of these surprised her in the least.

And finally there was a heavily scared man with cropped black hair and a floating cat thing that she never seen before, but she was able to put a name to him. He must be the Yamcha and Purar that Mrs. Briefs and Bulma sometimes talked about.

Nira took a deep whiff of the room, cataloging every scent that she knew: Bulma's was vanilla masked by her favorite perfume. Vegeta's was reminded her of blood and a body wash someone had left out on the counter one time. Trunks was a mix of his parents but with some pine thrown in. Gohan and Goten also smelled like blood, Nira assumed it was something that Saiyans and hybrids just tended to smell like, but there was a more sweet and sour note to it, like mowed grass on a muggy day. ChiChi smelled like maple and dried grass, similar to her sons but with a more dry note to it. Videl smelled like cherry blossoms and something akin to grapes. Nira tried not to think too hard about Oolong's scent, it reminded her too much of her favorite breakfast meat. Krillen smelled faintly of incense, probably from his days a monk, and chestnuts, like his daughter Marron, but she also had her mother's scent of spice and something all her own that reminded Nira of pumpkin pie. Eighteen not only smelled like spice but of metal, which was something very not right to Nira and made her nervous. Piccolo didn't really seem to have his own distinct scent, only traces of years of harsh training.

Then it was the two strangers. The man she assumed was Yamcha smelled like cologne and apples, which Nira found very pleasant. The cat thing, Purar, smelled like lemons and desert.

After she was done recognizing everyone, which only took, like, two seconds, she took a tentative step forward.

"A party?" she asked, "Whats a party?"

Bulma stared at her for a second as everyone just looked slightly disappointed, with Vegeta and Piccolo excluded.

"I keep forgetting you're new here." Bulma muttered under a breath before clearing her throat, "It's a get – together." She explained, "We're celebrating the day you were born with food and then we'll give you presents."

Looking utterly confused, Nira asked, "Why would you celebrate that?"

Bulma's shoulders fell back a little, looking at the girl with wide eyes, "Because you matter, stupid." She came up and hugged the girl.

Nira stiffened, she had never been hugged before in her life, she didn't know what she was supposed to do.

Bulma drew back but kept her hands on the girls shoulders, "Alright?"

"Um, I suppose…?" the alien coughed.

"Great!" Bulma chirped, turning back to the crowd, "Parties on!"

There was cheering as people either went off to the buffet or to the dance floor.

"Hi there." The man with the scars said as he came forward, along with the cat thing. He held out his hand, "My name's Yamcha, this is Purar, nice to meet you."

Nira studied the hand for a second before placing her own in it. At least she was familiar with handshakes. "Nira, and to you too."

She noticed the man looking at her ears with an amused and bewildered look on his face.

"What?" she barked.

"Oh, nothing, its just, uhh," he chuckled nervously for a bit. "I knew you were an alien but I didn't know what you would look like. Just trying to take it all in."

"You know Piccolo." Nira pointed out.

Yamcha smiled apologetically, "Yeah, its just that I never knew one your kind before."

"You wouldn't." Nira sighed, turning to watch the people, "I'm the last one."

She could hear the man swallow.

"I… I'm sorry to hear that." He murmured.

Nira shrugged, "Not your fault."

"Yeah, still pretty sorry, though." He responded.

She felt something brush up against her arm and looked down to see Purar looking up at her.

"Its not that, we just want you to know that we have, uh, sympathy, that's right, sympathy for you." He told her.

Nira blinked down at the creature before nodding in understanding, "Thank you."

"So, uhhh," the man muttered after a few moments of silence, "What kind of alien are you?"

"Morakian." Nira answered, "We were created by Frieza, most of our DNA consists of Namekian and Saiyan." She continued to make sure there wouldn't be any unneeded questions.

Yamcha stared at her, a mix of disgust and disbelief on his face. "So, you came out of a test tube?"

Nira snorted before shaking her head, "No, but my ancestors did. I was part of the fifth generation."

"Oh," Yamcha uttered, "Why'd Frieza create you guys for?"

Nira recited her explanation from when she first arrived to Earth.

The human whistled, "That's pretty wild."

The alien shrugged, "We didn't feel too special."

This time, he frowned, "Its not okay to think like that, y'know. You've gotten through some tough shit, that deserves some praise, right?"

Nira cocked her head to the side as she studied the man. A memory itched at the back of her mind, wanting to be remembered. She dug at it for a second and…

She shook her hand chuckled once, a soft smile on her lips.

"What?" Yamcha asked, looking scandalized.

"Oh, its not you." The girl explained, still smiling. "Its just… what you said reminded me of something my mom told me when I was really little."

Yamcha's face went soft as well as he shifted in his footing, clearing his throat before asking. "What was it?"

Nira grinned up at the man, "She said something like… _Every loss makes you that much stronger…. _Or something like that anyway." She felt a small blush on her cheeks. She never really confided in anyone about her family and it made her feel awkward and nervous.

Yamcha grinned lopsidedly, "Your mom was a real philosopher, huh?"

She shook her head, "Not really, that was my dad."

Suddenly Trunks and Goten were waving her over to a table that they had laid out so much food it was positively groaning under the weight of it.

"Talk to you later?" Yamcha asked.

"Perhaps." Nira grinned.

"Bye!" Purar chirped.

"Whats going on?" Nira asked, taking a seat across from the two.

"We're having an eat off!" Goten exclaimed, looking excited.

"And we want to challenge you!" Trunks added.

Nira eyed the food warily.

"We made sure there wasn't any chocolate." Trunks reassured her when he saw the look on her face.

She immediately believed the boys and nodded, hunching her shoulders and holding her hands out to her side.

"Alright, I'm in. Ready?" she said, grinning crookedly.

The boys got into stances of their own and nodded.

"On the count of three." Trunks grunted.

"One…"

"Two..."

"Three!"

There was a flurry of movement as the three gathered all of the food they could fit in their hands and stuff it in their mouths as fast as they could.

Nearly everyone stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the three gorge themselves at great speed. ChiChi looked on nervously, "Aren't they going to choke?"

Gohan chuckled, "Those three? They can eat a mountain and would come out just fine…"

"I win!" she heard Trunks shout a moment before she was done.

When she looked up she found that both boys had finished before her, but she didn't mind. She was feeling too stuffed to care at the moment, in fact.

"You lose!" Trunks cackled.

"Uh huh." Nira muttered, wiping a bit of salad dressing off of her face with a napkin. "Whatever."

"Alright, you three." Bulma snapped, sounding angry, although she was wearing an amused grin. "Finished throwing food everywhere?"

Nira looked down at the table. Bones, bits of food, and dirty plates were scattered all over the table. She grinned sheepishly, reaching up to tug at her hair.

"Sorry." She apologized, "I can clean it u-"

"Don't be stupid." Bulma huffed, "Seriously, when is it going to get through your thick skull that Birthday essentially means free – for - all day?"

Nira looked up at her guardian before realizing that she wasn't really in any at all trouble. Chuckling, she put her burning face in her hands. "Don't scare me like that." She scolded.

"I can scare you any time I want." Bulma said, ruffling the alien's thick, fluffy hair, "You're living in my house."

"Yeah yeah." Nira admitted, leaning into the petting slightly.

Vegeta liked making fun of her for the enjoyment out of being petted, calling her a "mutt". Nira had conveniently forgotten that mutt was an offensive slang for Morakian, Saiyans used to call them that all the time when they still lived in the same community, but she herself never really heard it in her life time.

After another half hour of eating and dancing everyone gathered around the pile of presents. Nira was still a little befuddled with the concept but she understood that you supposed to unwrap the package and pretend you like whatever's inside it eve if you didn't.

With her tail swishing back and forth anxiously and one hand rubbing at her gray tattoo she stood before the presents, waiting for Bulma to give her the cue. When everyone got quiet, the scientist gave a little nod to the alien girl.

She picked up the present on the very top of the medium size pile and unwrapped it carefully.

"You can rip it off if you want too!" she heard Trunks shout at her. She looked up at him, her ears folding forward a little before she nodded.

The alien ripped the wrapping off in one fell swoop and opened the little box. A small figure popped out of it, it looked like a girl… well, it looked like Nira! She was in her fighting clothes, in her battle stance, and smiling. Music was coming from it, she recognized it as a song she hummed to herself while training.

"Its…" she began, "Its… well, its wonderful." she looked up at the crowd, "Who's it from?"

"Me."

Nira looked up to see Piccolo ginning at her from the wall. She smiled broadly at him and thanked him before setting the music box on a nearby table.

She had gotten a portable radio from Trunks, a new training outfit from Videl, a box of books from Gohan. (Bulma told me you had already finished every book in your library) a package of sweets from ChiChi, (They would be gone by the next morning) Oolong had gotten her a package of every tea in the world, complete wit her own strainer and cup, Krillen and Eighteen had gotten her a beautiful charm necklace that she immediately put on, Yamcha had gotten her a perfumes, Bulma had gotten her even more clothes (You keep destroying yours! Ten outfits in two weeks!) and finally…

"Vegeta?" Nira questioned, looking down at the medium sized package, "You got me something?"

Vegeta glared at her until she shrugged and picked the wrapping off of the package.

"It's a…." she frowned, she wasn't sure what it was.

"An art set!" Bulma gasped, pointing at the stand and large things of paper. It came with pencils, erasers, paint brushes, and tubes of acrylic paint.

"I was sick of her playing with her food and making those stupid patterns on the lawn." Vegeta snarled in his defense.

Nira stared at the supplies as a large smile began lighting up her face. "Thank you." She said breathlessly. "Thank you very much, Vegeta."

The Saiyan grunted before turning his back to the crowd and stalking off, he seemed to think that he had participated enough for one evening.

The night ended quietly as everyone sat outside on the lawn, chatting with one another, holding beverages and plates of food as the sky grew dark and stars began to twinkle into sight.

Nira sat on the soft grass with Trunks and Goten, the boys were talking about the Budokai animatedly and Nira listened. She felt sleepy and pretty content with her life. She might not have been used to these human customs, but she's sure she can get used to it.

The alien looked up at the stars, four stars close together twinkled brightly down at her.

**We're officially back! The poll resulted in the majority being Yamcha but I think I'm just going to stick with them being good friends for the time being. There may be a chapter in there that shows that they might be more but… yeah. Next chapter is the Budokai!**


	8. Enter: Son Goku!

The week before the Budokai was intense. On Nira's request, Piccolo had started training her double time, added to the time she used to train in the Gravity Chamber.

By the time the day before the Budokai, Nira had lost to Piccolo fifty time in their duels, but thankfully with every loss Nira's strength grew exponentially, a trait that had been passed down by the Saiyans.

"Ha!" Nira panted, "I did it!"

Piccolo laid down on the ground, he had been nearly knocked unconscious from the blast that Nira had shot. He sat up, groaning in pain, to glare up at his protégé.

"I'm still moving." The Namek pointed out, struggling to get to his feet.

Nira paused in her celebrating to give her mentor a look of disbelief, "Yeah, I wasn't planning on taking off your limbs, y'know."

Piccolo rolled his eyes as he straightened. He didn't feel like arguing with the Morak today, besides, the Budokai was tomorrow, and she had done very well. Not that he would ever actually admit to that.

The alien girl huffed before floating back down to the ground, "Another round?" she asked.

Piccolo eye balled her for a second before shaking his head. She had obviously not been sleeping well and had been getting her ass handed to her all week. Partially because she was exhausted and partially because she was hesitant about actually hurting him, especially after a training session they had a few days after her birthday

It was an accident. Nira had fallen asleep waiting for Piccolo to arrive to their training grounds and had been sucked into a night terror. Nothing gave her away, due to the paralysis that took over when someone was sleeping (so they don't start running in their sleep when their running in their dreams) so when Piccolo came around he didn't notice anything wrong.

When he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked it Nira awoke in a flurry of claws and snarls. She had slashed his chest open, it would have been fatal if Piccolo hadn't reacted so quickly.

He had to take a trip to Dende, the only other Namek on Earth, to heal himself and had come back good as new. That didn't keep Nira from becoming repulsed in herself, and since then she had been going about Piccolo as if on tip toe, even Piccolo had threatened to rip her limbs off it only made her that more anxious.

Thing is, Piccolo had actually done it. Four days ago and Nira was still behaving like a dear in the headlights and they were dueling he had lost his temper and blasted her right foot and arm off.

So, naturally, after Nira had suffered through the excruciating pain of growing her limbs she went ballistic.

Piccolo may or may not have been pretty sore for the next day but he thought the price of getting the girl's head out of her ass was well worth it.

Anyway, Piccolo shook his head at his ward. "Rest up, its late and you need your strength for the Budokai."

Nira began to protest but Piccolo gave her the 'there will be no arguing' look and she sighed.

She knew that she probably looked like shit. She hadn't been able to sleep with the anticipation for the upcoming tournament gnawing at her nerves. Rubbing her eyes solemnly, she conceded defeat.

"One moment, Nira."

The girl turned to the Namek, he was glaring at her studiously.

"What is it?" she asked, reaching up to tug at the braid in her hair.

Without explanation the Namek pointed at her clothes. Nira looked down at them and gasped to see that they were changing right in front of her eyes. They were purple with blue under shirt. The belt was blue as well.

"Turn around." He ordered.

Feeling a little anxious, Nira turned slowly on the spot.

"I'm putting my symbol on it, showing that you were trained by me." He explained simply.

Nira tried to peak at the back of her new training outfit before settling with grinning at Piccolo goofily, he returned a very small one.

"Alright." She grunted, lifting off the ground, "See you at the Budokai?" she asked hopefully.

The Namek smirked and nodded. Grinning, Nira took off for the Briefs home.

She made sure to eat as much as her nervous stomach could hold before zipping off for bed. Except, she was finding it very hard to calm down enough to actually fall sleep. Her mind was alight with the thought that she would be able to test her skill against her friends, and maybe even get second place if she's lucky. The alien knew that the possibility of beating the Saiyans, even Trunks and Goten, was small but that didn't keep her from wanting to try. A bit of her Saiyan side was beginning to peak through, something that she was taught from birth to conceal and feel disgusted about, and for a few moments Nira tried to fight the urge to win but just ended up making her feel constipated. Sighing, she flipped onto her side and tried to bully her body into sleep.

Sometime during the night she felt a small warm body curl up behind her. Nira saved Trunks the embarrassment of saying something and settled on fidgeting with the covers to make sure he was covered. He must have been feeling nervous too or else he wouldn't have come to such drastic measures.

The alien gave the boy a smile of silent thanks, one which she knew he wouldn't be able to see, and with his company she was finally able to calm down enough to drift off into sleep.

**DBZ**

Nira's internal alarm set off and she grunted sleepily, rolling off of the bed and onto the floor with a _thud_. There was a sleepy snort came from the bed and Nira slapped herself, she had forgotten that Trunks was currently sharing the bed.

She peaked over the edge to see that Trunks was still fast asleep, he wasn't going to wake up any time soon. Nira looked at the digital clock on the bedside table to see that it was around six in the morning, everyone was planning on leaving around seven thirty and the Budokai was going to start at eight forty – five.

The alien decided that the boy could sleep just a little more and she hurried to go to the bathroom and shower before changing into her new battle suit. She studied the back of it with a large symbol on the back and grinned.

She stepped out to see that Trunks had already left, leaving the bed a rumpled mess. Nira fixed it quickly before going downstairs for breakfast.

Trunks and Vegeta were already down stairs, stuffing their faces with biscuits and gravy. Nira's mouth watered as she took a seat.

They had only been eating for what seemed like a few minutes before Bulma came crashing downstairs ordering everyone out the door.

Swallowing thickly, Nira had the feeling that today was going to be more than she had ever imagined.

**DBZ**

They had stopped to pick everyone up. Gohan and she were talking animatedly about what other competitors will be showing up.

Nira lifted herself halfway out of her seat so she could see Yamcha over ChiChi's head. "Are you gonna participate, Yamcha?" she asked.

The man laughed nervously, "No way!" he told her, "I'd be embarrassed."

Nira frowned, she had been looking forward to how well the human would do in the competition but she settled on shrugging, a little disappointed and plopping back down.

There was some more mindless chatter before Gohan piped up, "By the way, Vegeta, Goten, Trunks… Lets not become Super Saiyans."

Vegeta looked mildly surprised and asked, "Why?"

Bulma stepped forward, nodding, "Don't you understand? Even with normal form, people might recognize you because you guys were on the T.V. during the battle with cell, but if your guys turn into Super Saiyan they'll recognize you for sure!"

Gohan smiled at the scientist in thanks before continuing, "That's right… Thinks will be more complicated because of television."

"I'll destroy all of the T.V's!" Vegeta barked.

Nira snorted in her hand, "Don't say nonsense. " she reprimanded. She had gotten more comfortable around the Saiyan since her birthday.

Vegeta huffed, "It doesn't matter anyway." He smirked, "I'll still win the tournament."

Goten and Trunks whispered to each other for a second before nodding along. "We're okay with it too." Trunks said.

Nira didn't expect Gohan to turn to her. "And you?"

The alien girl raised an eye - brow, "I thought we settled on the fact that I can't go Super?"

"Well, yeah," Gohan mumbled, "but we're still not too sure. Just don't do anything that won't draw to much attention to yourself?" he pleaded.

She rolled her eyes but nodded anyway.

Gohan sighed in relief, "Thanks,"

**DBZ**

The Budokai was crowded and the sights and smells threatened to overwhelm Nira. She let Yamcha steer her for the first few minutes of disorientation as she slowly became accustomed to it. As everyone fought through the crowd, it seemed that every breathing thing turned around at once.

"What is it?" ChiChi's father questioned.

"Is Goku hear yet?" she heard Yamcha mutter.

Then almost everyone began dashing off to something in the distance, shouting. "It's Mr. Satan! Mr. Satan just arrived!"

Nira knew about Mr. Satan. She knew that he was Videl's father and a phony with a big head, both figuratively and literally. Apparently, he took all the credit for the Z Fighters saving the world from Cell. Nira may not know him personally, but she had a feeling that she wouldn't like him one bit.

Nira could hear him boasting to the crowd and she knew that she wouldn't like him one bit.

"Heh," she heard Yamcha chortle, "Satan hasn't changed."

She would have said something if Goten hadn't grabbed her attention. "Gohan, Nira!" he chirped, "Piccolo's here!"

Sure enough, they could see their green mentor standing near a tree. The two of them made a bee line for him.

"Have you seen my dad yet, Piccolo?" Gohan asked.

Piccolo answered, "Not yet…" he looked at the man's clothes. "Are you going to participate in _that_?!"

Nira sniggered, she had the same reaction upon seeing Gohan's get up when they had gone to pick him up.

Gohan flushed a little and muttered something under his breath that Nira decided not to pick up on.

ChiChi stood by Goten, looking forlorn. "Where can he be…?" she asked softly, "In the dressing room?"

Nira took a moment to feel sorry for the woman until she felt a new, strong ki appear out of nowhere. She whipped around to find the culprit to see what seemed to be a grown – up Goten.

The man that Nira knew to be Goku smiled brightly and laughed, "Yoohoo!"

Everyone shouted his name and once and rushed forward, most with tears in their eyes.

Goku beamed at his friend and family, "Wow, everyone changed a lot!" he stated, looking pleasantly surprised, "How are all you doing?"

For a moment everyone stared at him before everyone rushed to hug him, except for Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, Goten, Eighteen, Marron and Nira.

Nira watched the friends reunite with a big smile. Her heart hurt with the sheer happiness flooding from everyone. She took a step back to let them reunite in peace.

She noticed an old woman floating on an orb exchanging a few word with Goku before floating off. After everyone finished crowding Goku the Saiyan noticed the two new comers.

He pointed at ChiChi, his eyes wide. "Hey, I think there's a little me hiding behind your leg ChiChi." **(I know this isn't in the manga but I think its to cute not to put in here)**

Goten peeked from behind his mother shyly, "I'm Goten." He told his father.

Goku walked forward and said, "I'm Goku."

For a second all was silent until Goten lunged at Goku, screaming, "Daddy!"

Nira grinned as she watched the father and son finally meet with a big grin on her face. This was just too emotional.

When Goten and Goku were finished bonding the Saiyan turned to Nira. "Who are you?" he asked.

Nira stepped forward, "My name's Nira." She said. She looked over at Piccolo and he nodded. The two of them had practiced on what was best to say when she would meet Goku. "I'm the last Morakian, a species that was created by Frieza. Most of my DNA consists of Namekian and Saiyan. I came here to kill the Saiyan named Nappa but he's already dead so I've been living with the Brief's and training with Piccolo." She stuck her hand out, "Its very nice to meet you."

Goku blinked as he registered the overload of information before taking her smaller hand and shaking it with a grin on her face. "Its nice to meet you too, Nira. I can feel that you're a great fighter and a good person." She let go of her hand just as Piccolo told everyone it was time to register.

There was some problems when Trunks and Goten learned about the youths division.

"When did they make that rule?" Goku asked, looking a little confuddled.

Trunks returned his attention to the man behind the table, "No way! We want to fight the grown ups!"

The man was beginning to look frustrated, "No!" he told them, "Rules are rules."

Trunks turned from the man, looking disgusted and grunted, "Damn." Nira noticed that Krillen looked positively delighted that the boys wouldn't be accepted in the grown up division.

"Whats your name?" asked another man at the desk.

"Nira." She told him.

"Last name?" he asked, looking up at her expectantly.

She shook her head and the man rolled his eyes as he scribbled on the paper.

Everyone split at the entrance at the Budokai. There were wishes of good luck passed all around and Nira caught Yamcha giving her a thumbs up after Nira's quick embrace with Bulma and she grinned goofily.

"See you guys!" she called at the parting group.


	9. The Youth Competition

On the way to the preliminaries a nosy reporter came dashing towards them.

"Hi!" she chirped, wearing a false smile, "Where are you from?"

Vegeta and Piccolo continued past her without a word and Nira followed their lead, this woman smelled too much like cheap perfume anyway. That didn't keep her from overhearing the woman mutter, "Hey, haven't we seen those faces before…?"

She looked up at Piccolo to see if he had heard and he saw him nod just a tony bit, letting her know that he had, indeed, heard.

"Hello, where are you from?" they heard the woman say again. The two turned to see that she was talking to Goku.

"Where?" Goku asked, pointing at his halo, "From the afterlife." He answered.

"What?" the woman chocked, then a look of understanding covered her face. "Oooh, I get it" she said, "Is that thing on your head a popular accessory?"

"Its not an accessory." Goku pointed out, "You get it when you die."

Nira felt a small spike of ki coming from Piccolo and the camera a man had been holding exploded. Nira chuckled at how utterly shocked and confused the man and woman were as the rest of the group caught up with them.

Some of the guys left for the dressing room but others, including Nira, decided to stay outside. Nira had to put her fist in her mouth when a man asked Piccolo if he were sick. The Namek gave her an exasperated look but didn't scorn her. That would have been embarrassing.

When the others came out they left for a large open area near the changing room.

Suddenly a man with blond hair and wearing sun glasses gaped at them and cried, "Oh my gosh! Its you guys!"

Krillen and Goku recognized the man and the trio shook hands.

"Wow, this is incredible!" the man said, looking ecstatic, "I didn't expect you to be here! I'm really glad to see you all again." He gasped, "I've been waiting for this!" He blocked his face from one side so no one could tell what he was saying as he spoke in a whisper, "Tell me the truth…." He uttered, "Mr. Satan didn't kill Cell, it was you, wasn't it?"

Krillen and Goku chuckled discreetly. Nira felt a little relief that not everyone was stupid enough to believe that Mr. Satan was the almighty hero.

The stranger continued, "To be honest, the Budokai was not fun without you. Low intensity fights, y'know." Then he gazed at the rest of the group, "Are all of you friends?" he asked,

Goku gave the affirmative and the man looked delighted.

"Great! This will be quite interesting!" he cheered before stepping over to get a better look at Piccolo, "Please don't destroy the ring this time." He pleaded.

Nira gave Piccolo a confused look and her mentor gave her the 'later' look.

The man paused as he noticed Goku's halo. "Hey, whats with that funky circle over your head?"

"Oh, that?" Goku questioned looking up at it himself, "I got that after dying in the fight with Cell. However, I'm here today by special permission." He answered.

The man stared at Goku, processing the information before chuckling in disbelief, "Imagine that." He chortled, a little hysterical, "I never realized that you too could die."

Then an announcement blared out of the speakers telling everyone that only sixteen people from the crowd will be able to compete, not including Mr. Satan who will be fighting the one to goes to the final round. **(I changed it so that Nira will be able to compete without kicking anyone out)**

The man parted, giving them words of encouragement.

A bunch of people brought out a machine that everyone would be using to test how strong they were. Mr. Satan demonstrated, boasting that absolutely no one could beat him, which made Nira want to beat him in the face with a sack of bricks the size and weight of Vegeta.

Again, there was a small spike in ki from Piccolo and every single camera erupted, causing everyone to stare at the wreckage dumbfounded.

"Piccolo?" Gohan asked.

"Again?" inquired Nira.

"I've destroyed all the cameras, including the spectators. Now your friends can't find out your true identity." He explained.

Gohan beamed, "Thank you very much!"

Nira grinned fondly at the two before turning back to the demonstration, her tail swishing back and forth impatiently. She was pleased to see that Satan was looking constipated with frustration and annoyance.

Suddenly Gohan turned to the group, "I'm going to look for a friend." He told them. Nira knew by friend he meant Videl.

Goku blinked, "Oh, okay."

"See you later." Nira waved.

Then there was commotion as Mr. Satan prepared to hit the punching machine, being very overdramatic as he did so. Nira sighed, what a phony.

Mr. Satan released a war cry as he threw his fist into the machine. The monitor read 137 and everyone went ballistic.

Mr. Satan left with a parting, "This year, I'm looking forward to a real challenge!"

Everyone got their numbers and waited for their turn. There was some talk about an old friend of theirs named Tien and surliness coming off of Trunks as he grumbled about not being able to compete in the grown up division. When the number eighty – four came around Eighteen began her way to the machine.

"Hey, don't go full – power or you'll break it!" Krillen warned his wife whom responded with an, "I know."

Nira knew that Eighteen would do better than anyone who had already gone, even if she was holding back. Sure enough, with just a rap of her knuckles 774 appeared on the screen.

Everyone was confused and there was a scramble to 'fix' the machine and Eighteen was told to do it again. She still had more than anyone else with a 203. A pang of Saiyan pride told Nira to do better and she quickly shot it down.

Now, one after the other, the Z Fighters took their turns. Nira was after Goku and decided to practice her control. She tapped the machine with the back of her hand and landed herself a 190, just two points above Goku. She beamed that she was able to keep her strength in check as she returned to where the others were waiting. Piccolo was after her and had gotten 210.

By this time, the people thought something was seriously wrong with the machine and were preparing to go get a new one when Vegeta barked, "Get out of the way." Before hitting the thing full force. The machine shattered before it even made contact with the wall.

The two men stared incredulously at the trashed thing, their eyes bugging out of their heads. Nira couldn't help chuckling at them.

As the people went to get another machine Goku declared that they go check out the kid's competition. Everyone agreed readily and began making their way through the crowd.

Nira spotted Gohan and Videl and motioned for the group to stop to check up on them before leaving.

"You're friend's a girl?" Goku said, pleasantly surprised, "Its her isn't it?"

"Uhh, yeah." Gohan affirmed.

Nira waved at Videl whom waved numbly back, she seemed surprised for some reason that Nira couldn't think of.

Krillen grinned impishly, "Not bad, Gohan. She's pretty cute!"

The alien girl rolled her eyes.

"We're going to check out the game for Trunks and Goten. It's going to begin pretty soon." Goku told the pair, "Pass the preliminary quickly, okay?"

The group bid their farewells as the left for the child competition.

On their way there an announcement said that the child division was going to start soon.

"C'mon." Nira bit out, picking up the pace, "Lets find some spots."

The group found a place at the very top. Nira sat on one of the bars with her arms crossed over the top ones as she watched the stranger from before come out. Her tail swished back and forth on the concrete.

"Even though it's a kids competitions the prize for the first place is ten million zenii and the second is five million!" he said into a microphone. "Also, the winner will have a chance to fight against the greatest person on Earth as a bonus. That person is…" he made a grand gesture. "The champion of the Budokai: Mr. Satan!"

The crowd went wild as Mr. Satan appeared, screaming along with the fans. Nira watched with boredom as the man vaulted towards the ring... and tripped and landed on his head.

Nira immediately burst into laughter, "That's what you get you egomaniac!" she said when she caught her breath.

She got many scandalized and murderous stares for that, but she hardly cared, still laughing at Mr. Satan who was holding his head in evident pain. He seemed to notice that everyone had saw him fall and he got up.

"Can't the champion make a joke?!" he shouted, giving a false laugh.

Nira's laughter fell flat, she stared at the man blankly before looking up at the group. "Will it be considered murder if the victim was a jackass?"

Of course, she had been kidding. She didn't seriously think about killing the man, perhaps giving him a good kick where it hurt, but not actually killing him. She still wasn't a killer.

The group broke out into nervous laughter at Nira's dig. They probably were thinking along the same lines. The crowd, on the other hand, had began cheering again.

The man continued to asked Mr. Satan a few more questions and Nira was starting to feel bored again. Instead she listened to her friends chat.

"I think the Budokai's become to fancy." She heard Krillen comment.

"The rings larger too…" Goku muttered.

"Crap." Piccolo snarled, "It seems more like a circus now."

Nira cocked her head to the side as she wondered idly what the Budokai was like before. This Budokai was very different from the competitions from her home world. It was just a roped off flat space where the village gathered around to watch.

"The man with the microphone announced the beginning of the competition, counting off the rules: Surrendering, out of the ring, count down to ten, or unconsciousness will result in a loss.

Trunks was the ninth fight, he was against a kid with a dumb haircut named Ethus. Nira moved her ears forward as she listened to Ethus egg on Trunks.

"Poor kid," she mumbled, "he's gonna get his ass handed to him."

Sure enough, Trunks landed only a few blows, knocking the kid into the air and the same boy landing on his face, unconscious.

Nira silently praised Trunks for beating the kid up, but she knew that it wouldn't be a challenge until he and Goten face off.

Krillen seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Damn," he mumbled, "It won't be good until Goten and Trunks fight…"

Nira grunted in agreement and as she readjusted her seat on the concrete.

Goten was the sixteenth fight. It appeared that the boy he was going to fight was the brother of the one Trunks smacked around. Nira nodded, this wouldn't be long.

The kid threw a punch at Goten, whom blocked it with a single finger. Looking disgruntled, the boy reeled back and tried to kick Goten in the face, Goten blocked it with his fist, not even trying.

"C'mon, fight for real." Nira heard Goten say with her super hearing, "Give me all you've got."

The boy looked both frustrated and horrified before he began hopping from one foot to the other. He started to throw punches at Goten but, again, Goten blocked every single one.

Then, with a single punch to the face, the kid was knocked out flat.

They breezed through the rest of the fights until it was just them. Nira got up so she could see better, this was something to look forward too. Gohan and Videl showed up, both looking slightly breathless as they both had hurried there as soon as they could.

"Just in time." Nira pointed out.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Gohan panted, "The eliminations started again."

"Took them long enough." Krillen muttered.

Goku smiled at his son, "I'm glad you got here in time to see the fight."

"Please start the final round of the Tenka-Ichi-Budokai's Youth Division!" The announcer cried into the microphone.

The boys got into their stances and Nira heard Trunks say, "Just to let you know, I'm not going to hold back."

"Me neither." Goten responded.

Nira grinned with anticipation as the two lunged towards the other.

The two boys attacked each other swiftly and deftly. Hitting and kicking with precision born from years of training. The two took their fight to the air, never letting up for a second.

"Hell, yeah!" Nira shouted, "You can do it, guys!"

"Who are you rooting for?" Krillen asked, looking sly.

The alien shrugged, "Both of them." She answered simply.

Goten and Trunks both landed back on the ground, both looking a little worse for wear and grinning.

Goku was beaming at them. "Trunks and Goten are pretty good!" he said brightly.

Gohan smiled at his dad, "Told ya."

Krillen watched them, looking excited, "Its only going to get better."

Nira nodded, "They're doing great!"

A fondness came over her as she remembered he own brothers fighting playfully. She thought that, if they knew each other, that Trunks and Goten would be friends with Corren and Riz.

The crowd was beside themselves with awe. They had obviously not been expecting the amazing display from the boys.

Suddenly Trunks's hands began glowing as he began to build two orbs of ki.

"It can't be!" Gohan screeched, "Is he going to throw an energy attack from there?"

Krillen growled, "That idiot! It'll hit the spectators."

Nira's tail stilled and her hand flew up to her hair. "Uh oh." She breathed.

Goku crossed his arms but was still smiling, "Nah, it'll be okay." He reassured them.

Nira gave the Saiyan a distressed look, "I hope you're right." She said to him.

Goku looked at her, he was still grinning, "Don't underestimate them."

Nira returned her gaze back to the ring, not completely reassured.

Trunks threw the blast of ki at Goten, who hopped into the air to dodge it. Nira's heart fluttered as the ball came right at the crowd, but Trunks redirected it at the last second so it flew skyward.

Nira released a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and Goku beamed at them. "See"

Just then, Goten got into a stance that Nira recognized as the Kamehameha. She had seen Goten and Gohan practice it the day she stopped by their home on her way home.

"Kame…."

"Wait," she said when a thought struck her, "Does Goten know how to control his ki blasts yet?"

"Kame…"

Gohan froze, "Oh, cra-"

"HA!"

Trunks leaned to the side as the blast flew by him, taking part of the stadium with it.

"Geez!" Krillen gaped.

"He still hasn't learned to control…" Goku said, looking thunderstruck.

Nira heard the boys agree on not using any more ki attacks, instead relying solely on their fists. The boys flew at each other, Trunks grabbed Goten and piched him. For a second, Trunks was gone and Goten floated in the sky, looking confused, before Trunks reappeared behind him and grabbed his arms behind his neck.

Goten thrashed in Trunk's grip but seemed unable to break free.

"It looks like Trunks is going to win." Vegeta commented, looking smug.

Nira rolled her eyes. Of course, to the Saiyan is was all about winning, but to the Morakian is just for fun, winning was possible bonus.

Trunks pleaded Goten to give up, telling him if he were to hold him any tighter he would kill hum but Goten just continued to squirm. Then there was a burst of ki and Goten broke free from Trunk's hold before zooming back to the ground.

Everyone seemed to stiffen as Trunks corned Goten for becoming Super Saiyan when they weren't supposed to.

"That stupid Goten!" Gohan snarled.

"He can turn into Super Saiyan?!" Goku gasped, looking bewildered.

Nira peaked at Videl, only to see her eyes bugging out of her head. Nira felt just a little sorry for her, she had been living most of her life believing that her father was the strongest being on earth after all.

Vegeta rounded on Goku, "That was a dirty trick, Kakarot!" he shouted in anger.

"I didn't know anything about it," The other Saiyan admitted but Nira was still trying to process what a Kakarot was.

She tugged on Krillen's sleeve discreetly and asked in a hushed voice so that she wouldn't look like a fool, "Whats a Kakarot?"

"That's what Vegeta calls Goku." He explained patiently, "Apparently that's what was Goku's name back when he was a baby."

Nira nodded understanding and returned to watch the match.

Trunks had hidden his left arm behind his back, taunting Goten.

"You couldn't win! I dare you to try!" she was able to hear Goten say over the crowd, "You can't use your left arm, okay?

"Fine." Trunks replied, looking smug.

_Oh my God, he looks like his dad_. Nira thought, her eye – brows rising.

Trunks threw a punch Goten's way and was countered with a shoe in the face. Again, it was a flurry of movement that the alien girl was able to follow with her ki. Then the two broke away from one another, Goten giggling impishly which seemed to have infuriated Trunks. Why would Nira think this? Well, call the ki blast the kid threw at his friend a pretty strong hint.

Goten flew up high into the air. Nira wondered what he was doing when she heard Goten cry, "CHARGE!" before zooming back down to Earth.

At the last possible second, Trunks dodged Goten's attack, planning on letting the boy flatten himself, but Goten used the momentum of his attack to throw himself after Trunks. He would've hit, but Trunk's became a Super Saiyan and dodged him again, throwing a ki blast at him that nailed Goten and sent him flying towards the crowd.

Goten tried to slow himself down but he was eliminated anyway, just for the slightest touch on the stands.

Nira smiled down at the kids. She had been rooting for both but she was just happy that Trunks and Goten hadn't mauled each other.

"CONGRATS TRUNKS!" Nira crowed down at him. "GOTEN YOU DID GOOD."

The boys looked up at her and waved.

Goku was gawking at the boys, "Trunks can go Super Saiyan too?"

No one really needed to answer him.

Vegeta sniggered smugly, "Too bad." He smirked, patting Goku on the arm, "It looks like my son's got the better blood."

Nira sighed, _Saiyans…_

Satan had come out to do his round with Trunks. Nira must admit, he had bravado, but by the scent of fear reeking from him he knew that he stood zero chance of winning this match fairly.

"Shall we get going now?" Krillen piped up. "The elimination rounds should be over."

Goku nodded, "Okay, sure."

Nira and the rest began to follow when Videl said indignantly, "Wait! Isn't that kid your friend? He's going to fight Mr. Satan, don't you want to watch?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Gohan agreed, "It might be a good fight after all." He looked beseechingly at the group but they simply turned around and began leaving.

"We'll go first, then." Goku called over his shoulder.

Nira gave Gohan an apologetic look before carrying on with the others.


	10. The Budokai Begins

**Authors Note: I may or may not have been listening to Endless Night from the Lion King on Broadway and I may or may not have thought of Nira and cried.**

**Anyway, thank you lovely people for every favorite and follow. You guys are the best. I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to read this. **

**The last chapter was a lot longer than I had intended it on being and that just might be a norm from this time on. I'm not completely sure.**

**Just wanted to say thanks, welcome back to our regularly schedule program.**

The group that hadn't stayed behind to watch Trunks beat up Mr. Satan traveled to the area where the competitors would be staying. A man blocked them from going any further, telling them that they had to have passed the elimination and asked if they had their results.

"If they have, I think you'll see that we've all qualified." Krillen told him.

Another man that was standing by took out a piece of paper and asked for their names.

"Krillen."

"Goku."

"Number Eighteen."

"Vegeta."

"Nira."

"Ma Jr."

Nira gave her mentor a confused look, "Ma Jr.?" she asked.

"Yeah," Goku said, turning around to face him. "Whats that about?"

"I don't think they would like Piccolo."

Nira had no idea why he would need a cover up, a green man was hard to forget in the first place, but she shrugged and decided to leave it be.

After the man checked the list he apologized and let them pass. "At 1:30 you'll draw lots to determine the matches." He told them as they filed pass him.

"Doesn't seem to be much competition." Krillen commented, "I bet we'll win the money."

"Heh, I won't be able to use it in the afterlife." Goku thought aloud.

Krillen chortled, "Big deal. You don't age in the afterlife, either."

Goku hummed, "Krillen, do you want to try being dead?"

The short man grinned, "Oh, stop it. Nah, I'm super happy right now."

Goku hummed again and Nira saw that he was studying her. She turned to address him, "Something wrong?"

"Oh, no." Goku answered, "I was just wondering why you wanted to compete. I don't think its for the money,"

Nira tilted her lips, "Its not. I'm just competing for the fun of it."

Goku looked like this is what he wanted to hear. He patted Nira on the back and grinned, "That's good."

**DBZ**

Nira was busy stuffing herself full of BLT sandwiches with Vegeta and Goku. She had only been able to eat four biscuits before being hurried out of the house and her stomach was positively snarling in hunger.

Gohan and Videl showed up about halfway through her twelfth sandwich (and twentieth chicken wing and second helping of fried rice) They had already ordered for him so he took beside her and began gorging himself as well.

"The food here's really good." He commented around a mouthful of stir fry.

Krillen watched with a mixture of exasperation and acceptance, "What is it about Saiyans stomachs?"

Nira made a coughing noise and Krillen hurried to correct himself, "And Morakians."

Nira nodded and inhaled another sandwich.

"I am never going to get used to that…." Piccolo muttered.

The alien girl grinned up her mentor, her cheeks bulging with the amount of food she had stuffed in her mouth. She looked like a chipmunk whom had swallowed too many nuts.

Krillen snorted into his drink and Videl had cracked a smile at the imagery. Piccolo, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes.

Feeling accomplished, Nira returned to her rice.

**DBZ**

Feeling full, the group headed off towards the lot draw. She was walking beside Videl and noticed that she was looking (and smelling) uneasy.

"Something wrong, Videl?" she inquired, her eye – brows furrowing in concern.

"You didn't eat." Gohan added, "Are you on a diet?"

Videl didn't answer either of them but seemed to try to look nonchalant.

Then a pair of odd ki's and scents caught the Moraks attention. A large pink man with long white hair was standing before them. Next to him was a smaller, purple man with a white Mohawk. The smaller man was floating a foot off of the ground and smiling knowingly at them.

Nira halted behind Goku and studied the pair warily. Their scent was strange to her, even stranger than Eighteen's.

Videl peeked around Goku and uttered, "Aren't those people floating in the air?"

Before anyone could respond the shorter of the two in front of them asked, "Hello. You're Goku, aren't you?"

Alarm bells went off in Nira's head as Goku responded with, "How did you know my name?"

The man grinned, "I've heard about you." He answered, "I've wanted to spar with you for quite some time." He continued, "I've also passed the elimination. I hope I'm lucky enough to challenge you.

Of course" he went on, "I have no hope of beating you. I just want to see how strong you are."

He offered his hand, "Lets shake hands."

Nira wanted swat the man's hand away or warn Goku not to touch him. Something about his scent and ki just seemed wrong and she didn't like it one bit.

Instead, she let Goku clasp hands with the man, "Pleased to meet you." He said in friendly greeting.

The man's grin widened a little, "It's just like the rumors said." He mused, "You have a fine spirit."

"Huh?" Goku uttered.

Before anyone could react the man turned around. "Well then, we'll go in first."

"Wh… who was that?" Piccolo murmured.

"I don't know." Goku answered softly. "I guess our victory won't be so easy after all…"

"Huh? You think so?" Krillen wondered aloud, "He seemed like a strange guy."

Nira continued to glare as the two continued into the distance but was snapped out of her thought when Gohan said her name, "Nira, what with that face?"

She didn't look away from the strangers before answering, "Somethings off about their scent…"

"Scent? What do you mean?" Goku asked, looking curious.

"I mean that their scent was weird, something not quite right." She explained.

"How could you smell them from all the way over there?" Videl questioned suspiciously.

Sometimes, Nira forgot that _she_ was the weird one on this planet.

"I trained my senses since I was young." She told them patiently, "My civilization lived in a desert where your eyes could deceive you with hallucinations and your sense of smell could lead you to a source of water. Every child had too go through intensive training on their senses."

"Wow," Goku said, looking excited. "Your race must be amazing if they could train their nose so they could find water."

Nira felt an ache in her chest and she looked down at her toes.

"She's the last one, you idiot." Vegeta snapped.

The Morakian's head snapped up to stare at Vegeta, she hadn't expected him to say anything at all. She smiled warmly at him before intervening.

"Its alright, Vegeta. He must have forgot." She turned to Goku, "Yes, they were, Goku. Thank you."

Goku smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I hadn't realized I was opening some old wounds."

Nira waved it off, determined to change the subject. "Its fine, lets just not talk about it."

Piccolo seemed to pick up Nira's anxiety to change the subject and quickly took the opportunity. "They don't look like they're from Earth." He said. "I don't know where they're from… why is an alien coming here?" he added.

Nira rolled her eyes at the Namek, "Speak for yourself." She said under breath.

Krillen huffed, "Whatever, lets go. They're starting to draw lots."

The group, again, made their way to the lot draw to see that everyone else had already arrived. The blond man from before waved them over.

"Hello, everybody!" he chirped, "It seems that everyone is here. We're now going to draw lots, so when your name is called, please step up."

Nira saw Krillen praying that he wouldn't have to fight someone strong in the first round.

Piccolo must've heard to because he pointed out, "Gods just Dende."

Grinning, Nira cast an eye around to the other competitors. There was a very obese Indian man, a young guy with long blond hair, an African man with a moustache, the two from before, a man in a mask… wait, no, that's just Trunks and Goten in a disguise, Nira realized with a wry grin, and two others.

The last two were both bald with M's tattooed onto their foreheads. Nira noticed that they had too much power for normal humans and their eyes looked nearly feral. In fact, their ki didn't feel like it was all their own. She took a whiff in their direction and had to stifle her coughs into her hands. The two men smelled like something rotting… something dead! The Morak took a step closer towards the group, out of everyone there she found they her the most anxious and the presence of her friends calmed her a fraction.

Videl gave her a curious look when Nira hacked into her hands. The alien just shook her head.

The African man, Killer, was the first to draw his lot. He got number 14. Next was Kibito, whom got number 7. Then it was Krillen, he got number 1. Nira was next, she got ten. Gohan got 8, he was going against Kibito first. Nira's tail stilled in her anxiety she felt for her friend.

Number Eighteen got 9. Nira knew that she would be very strong, plus the fact that she could essentially never tire, and that she could be defeated in the first round, but she shook herself from those thoughts and smiled at her future opponent bracingly.

Shin, the short purple man, got 3. Then it was Spopovich's turn. When no one came up Goten and Trunks came up instead, but when they tried to draw one of the bald men came up behind them and shouted at them that _he_ was Spopovich. Nira's eyes narrowed as the man drew his lot, getting 6. Why hadn't he come up sooner? The blond man, Jewel, got 16, Goku got 11, Videl got 5, the Indian man, Punta, got 2.

_Looks like Krillen got his wish_ Thought Nira, although Punta seemed to think otherwise. He threatened Krillen, saying he was a dead man, but Krillen just seemed mildly amused with the notion.

Next it was Vegeta, who drew a 12.

"Oh, crap." Breathed Nira, figuring out what that meant.

"Goku and Vegta are going to fight right off?" Krillen gasped.

The Morakian glanced at Vegeta and saw the evil smirk on his face. Her stomach dropped to her navel, she knew the two had history, and not any particularly good history either. Vegeta would probably do anything to defeat Goku. She knew so because when she had passed him the salt one evening she had accidently absorbed some of his thoughts and memories. It frightened her to a degree just how badly Vegeta wanted to prove that he was the stronger Saiyan.

Then it was Mighty Mask (Goten and Trunks) who got 13, Ma Jr. (Piccolo) got 4. Nira's eyes flicked to the alien named Shin when she realized that her mentor had to go against him for the first round. Piccolo's face mimicked her emotions as he stared at Shin with a mixture of shock and fear.

Last was Yamu, the other bald man, who got 15.

The announcer reminded us of the rules and the thirty minute time limit. After he announced the competitors and who was against who for their first rounds and announced the beginning of the first match: Krillen and Punta.

The pair walked out to the ring, Nira felt that no wishes of good luck were really needed. Size rarely mattered, just look at Vegeta.

Nira listened to Punta provoking Krillen with grim amusement. "Maybe he'll take pity on him and make it quick." she muttered.

"Yeah, too bad." Killer nodded, he had overheard her. "That shorty probably'll never regain full use of his body…"

"Oh, I wasn't talking about him." Nira said.

Killer gave her an incredulous look before turning back to watch the match.

"_If you're both ready let the fight begin!"_ Sunglasses cried.

Punta gave a battle cry and flipped end over end, showing off his agility, before continuing to lash out at Krillen with his words.

So, of course, on punch to the gut, one to the face, and a good kick in the balls and the poor fellow was knocked out of the grin, more than finished.

Nira clapped along with the crowd, not missing Krillen's pleased grin.

The next fight was Piccolo and Shin. Nira watched the two of them go to the ring with trepidation. She grinned at her mentor in a reassuring way but he either didn't see it or ignored her.

"Does that Shin guy bug you much…?" Krillen asked no one in particular.

Nira didn't respond but reached up and began tugging at her hair nervously.

When Sunglasses announced the beginning of the second match for a few moments there was nothing but silence as the to opponents stared at each other.

"You'll find out soon enough." She heard Shin say in a hushed voice "But for now, lets just enjoy the game."

For a second, Nira had no idea what the purple alien was talking about or who we was talking to, but seeing the stricken look on Piccolo's face she immediately understood – _he had read his mind_.

The Morakian watched as Piccolo tried to rearrange his face back to his cool mask, but he wasn't able to hide his worry.

"I'm… I'm sorry." He murmured, "I surrender."

"Huh?" Gohan gasped.

"Wh – What?!" Nira yelped.

"You surrender?" Sunglasses asked after a beat, "You're not going to fight?"

"That is correct." The Namek answered as he trudged back to the others.

As he passed Goku asked, "Is he that strong?"

"Yes." Piccolo said, looking grim, "The difference between us is too great."

"You're joking right?" Krillen asked shrilly, "I have to fight him next!"

The Morakian bit her cheek as she watched Piccolo leave. She had wanted to possibly fight her mentor in the competition, but that wasn't going to happen.

The third round was Videl and Spopovich.

Before she went, Nira took her aside. "Be careful, alright?"

"What?" Videl scoffed, "You don't think I can take him on?"

Truth was, that was exactly what she thought. Not that she was undermining Videl's strength, she just knew that Spopovich was stronger.

"All I'm saying is that he might be dangerous." The alien explained, "If something goes wrong don't put your pride before your life."

Videl gave her a calculating look before nodding and turning away to go to the ring.

As Shades introduced the new competitors the two of them passed Shin. Nira watched as the alien gave Spopovich a shrewd, hateful glare.

_He knows somethings up…_ she thought to herself.

Next thing she knew, the match had begun.


	11. Videl Beaten - Gohan Drained

Nira watched Videl get into her battle stance. Spopovich was looking more feral and angry than ever. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the alien known as Shin round the corner where Nira could feel Piccolo was. Her ears twitched in that direction and she blocked all other sounds out.

"I may be mistaken," she heard Piccolo rumble, "but might you be…?

"What?" the purple skinned alien asked.

Goten and Trunks bumped into her as they walked past her. "Watch it." She reprimanded.

The boys nodded hastily before continuing on their way. Nira returned to her eavesdropping and huffed in annoyance when she realized she must have missed some of the conversation.

"Supreme Kai?!" Piccolo gasped.

There was the sound of footsteps as Shin began to speak, "Please don't tell anyone. I don't want anybody to know yet."

All was quiet for a few moments and Goku leaned over, "You're listening to them, aren't you?" he inquired.

Startled, Nira nodded.

"What was going on?" the Saiyan asked.

The Morakian shook her head, "I think that's something you should ask Piccolo." She said, "Maybe you'll make some sense out of it." She added.

Goku nodded, "Alright then."

Nira returned her attention to the battle to see that she had missed some of it in her concentration. Videl was attacking Spopovich brutally, but he was able to get up as if her fists were the wind.

"She'll be fine." Gohan said, noticing Nira's apprehension.

"I sure hope you're right." She mumbled back, gripping the windowless hole in the wall so tight that it was beginning to crack.

Spopovich came rushing towards the human girl and they began to throw punches at each other at great speed.

"Not bad." Krillen commented.

"She's a lot stronger than him." Gohan replied, giving Nira an 'I told you' smile. "Videl's pounding him."

Just then, Videl gave him a blow to the face and a kick to the gut, sending him flying. Nira dared to hope that he would be thrown out of the ring but it wasn't so. Shades began to congratulate Videl on her victory when Spopovich got right back up and came at Videl.

Before he could even prepare himself she vaulted herself at him and kicked him right in the face. Again, it was a storm of attacks coming from Videl and again, just when they thought she had won Spopovich got right back up and was at it again.

"Just back down, Videl." Nira whispered.

"You're right, Nira." Goku said seriously, "There's something strange about him."

"You feel it too, then?" she asked in a hushed voice.

He nodded and opened his mouth to say something but gasps and jeers from the crowd brought their attention back to the arena. Apparently, Spopovich had back – handed Videl and she landed on the ground hard. She hopped back up but Spopovich was already there. He kick upward, sending her flying.

"Fall out of the ring." Nira commanded the Earth under her breath. "Please, just fall out of the ring."

For a second, it looked like she would, but she caught herself in midair and flew upward and back onto the ring.

Nira groaned internally, she had a bad feeling about this.

"Way to go!" Gohan chirped, "She's learnt flying very well."

"It might be better if she had lost right now." Goku said. Nira nodded fervently.

Gohan turned to stare at his father, "Wha…?"

"I felt something odd about Spopovich." He explained, "After all of those hits, he shouldn't still be this strong."

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked.

"I'm still not sure myself…" Goku answered.

Nira watched horrified as Videl came after Spopovich again, round house kicking him in the face. There was a sickening _crack_ and Nira's heart faltered. Spopovich's head had been twisted around so he was looking at the crowd behind him. His neck had been broken.

There were many shrieks and gasps coming from the crowd, Nira was pretty sure she heard some throw up as well.

The Morakian stared as the man grabbed his head and twisted back into place. Her stomach squeezed with nausea.

Nira just had time to register the malicious grin on Spopovich's face when he threw a fist at Videl, knocking her backward.

"Oh no." Nira moaned, pulling out a bit of her hair, "Just stop, Videl."

"You guys are right." Krillen stated, looking apprehensive, "That guys not normal."

Videl flew upward out of Spopovich's reach. For a moment, Nira thought she would be safe up there, but to everyone's surprise Spopovich hurled himself into the air after her and even higher than she.

He thrust his hand out and a ki blast vaulted into Videl. Everyone was struck speechless as she fell back down to Earth.

"That jerk!" Krillen snarled, "That was an energy attack, even if it was weak."

"Calm down." Vegeta huffed, "If he kills her he loses. So he shot a weak on purpose."

Vegeta's reassurances didn't do a good job of reassuring anybody.

Nira could feel anger start to bubble up inside her like an active volcano. Horror had quickly turned to rage as she continued to watch Spopovich pummel her friend. She was seriously thinking about rushing out there as he rook Videl by the head and began pounding her in the ribs.

Before she could even make a half a step in their direction when Piccolo had grabbed her by the shoulder.

"No, we can't interfere." He warned the Morak.

Nira could hear Videl's bone's breaking from where was standing, she glared at her mentor with disbelief, "I can't just sit here and watch her get beaten half to death." She growled.

"I know." He said, giving her shoulder a warning squeeze, "but we have to."

Nira growled deep in her throat before turning back to the match, feeling helpless.

The super human threw Videl, she landed with her head dangling off of the ring.

"You've done enough! Surrender!" Gohan shrieked, "Give up, Videl!"

Nira joined it, "Get off of the ring!" she cried, "Just stop!"

Sunglasses came over to the human girl, "I think so too." He agreed, "You should give up."

But Videl was having none of it. She sat herself up, "No!" she insisted, "I'm not going to give up."

"_Videl!"_ Nira howled.

"Don't be stubborn!" Gohan shouted, looking more distressed by the second. "He'll kill you!"

Nira noticed that Videl was holding her arm, it was possible that it had gotten broken. Her right eye was closed tightly and blood was dripping out of her mouth. She looked ready to drop any second.

"I don't think she can take a beating like that again." Nira breathed.

Gohan gave her a look of mortification before turning back to watch his friend take on the brute once again. Videl jumped into the air and kicked upward. Spopovich leered down at her, licking up the blood on his lips before grabbing her by the hair and picking her up. He brought his knee to her face brutally.

When Nira saw Videl's broken face blood roared in her ears.

"That-That son of a bitch!" she snarled.

Krillen looked equally as angry, "Why is he doing this?!"

The human threw the girl onto the ground and began to squish her head with his foot.

An agonized cry of pain came from Videl as her skull threatened to split with pressure. Nira's hands were shaking with restraint as tears of furry fell down her face.

Suddenly, a spike of ki came from Gohan and light began to envelope him, in his anger he had become Super Saiyan.

"Damn it!" he growled as he tore off his bandana, "I've had it with this bastard!"

"Calm down!" Krillen told him.

"No way!" Gohan retorted, throwing off his cape as well.

For a second Nira thought Gohan was going to stop Spopovich, and she wished him good luck, but before anyone could do anything the other bald man, Yamu, ordered, "Spopovich, that's enough!"

Spopovich paused his torture to look over his shoulder at Yamu as he came forward.

"We didn't come here for that." He stated, "Now hurry up and win."

The brutish man stared at the other before grunting and kicking Videl over the side of the ring.

"She's out!" Shades cried in relief, "Spopovich wins!"

Nira let out the breath she had been holding and slumped against the wall. She watched Gohan carry Videl away so she could seek medical attention.

Goku turned to the group, "Does anyone have a senzu?" he asked.

When everyone responded to the negative he put two fingers to his forhead, "All right, I'll go to Karin to get some." And disappeared.

"How'd he do that?" Nira gasped.

"Eh, its nothing really, its like teleportation." Krillen answered, "To be truthful I don't remember myself."

Gohan came running into the building. Krillen made sure to tell him that Goku had gone to get some senzu beans (whatever that was) before he could take off.

After a few minutes Shades announced that Videl wasn't in any danger and the fourth match was about to begin. Gohan asked if they could wait for a few minutes to wait for Goku and the magical beans.

When his father came back with three senzus Gohan hurried to give them to Videl.

"Kick ass, Gohan." Nira told him when he came sprinting back, still feeling angry about Spopovich beating Videl.

He nodded with smile and the fourth match began.

After a moment or two the Morakian heard the alien ask, "Change into Super Saiyan. I want to see if you're strong enough to help us."

The alien girl's eye-brows shot up, _They know about Super Saiyans?!_ She thought.

Gohan said something similar and continued with, "What do you mean by 'helping'?"

"You'll see soon enough." Kibito answered stoically, "First, change into Super Saiyan."

"Are you kidding?" Gohan asked incredulously, "Me, changing here in front of everyone?"

"What are they talking about?" Krillen muttered.

"Changing into Super Saiyan." Nira answered.

Piccolo shouted his name and Gohan turned to look at him. The Namek gave a curt nod. As Gohan paused in indecision the alien known as Shin came forward.

"We're going to use Gohan I'm very sorry." He stated, "No matter what happens, please, don't do anything."

"What do you mean by that?!" Nira said, turning to look back at the ring.

"I don't answer to those I don't know." Vegeta snapped, "Tell us who you are."

Piccolo was the one to answer, "He's Supreme Kai."

Everyone looked shocked but Nira was still confused. "Whats a Supreme Kai?" she asked, trying not to sound foolish.

"He's essentially the god of the Kais. Kai's are super powerful beings that live in the after life." The Namek explained.

"Whats going to happen when Gohan changes to Super Saiyan?" Krillen asked.

"I think Yami and Spopovich will attack him." Suprem Kai explained. "But like I said, don't get involved." When he was met with suspicious and hostile glares he continued, "Don't worry, they won't kill him. They're just after his energy."

"Energy?" Goku inquired.

Before any more could be said Gohan had not only turned Super Saiyan but he took it a step further and became Super Saiyan 2.

"He's not even close to the level he was at when he fought Cell." Vegeta grunted, "He got caught up in peace and stopped training."

"Even so, he's stronger than I expected." Supreme Kai mused, "I'm not sure if _I_ can contain that power."

Nira gave the god of the Kai's a look of disbelief, "Are you saying that Gohans stronger than a god?"

Before he could respond something caught his attention. He whipped around, "Here they come!"

Yamu and Spopovich came running towards the ring. Gohan noticed and turned around to fight them off but Supreme Kai thrust his arms out and Gohan stopped moving.

"Excuse you!" Nira yelped.

Spopovich grabbed Gohan from behind and Yamu plunged something that looked like a genies lamp with a needle – like end into Gohans side.

The Z Fighters prepared to intervene but Supreme Kai shouted, "Keep out of this!"

"We'll kill anyone who gets in our way! Get it?" Spopovich announced as Gohan gave a cry of alarm and pain. He turned back to normal and the two baldies soared away.

"Don't do anything yet!" the purple alien told them, "Kibito will get Gohan back to normal." When he was sure that the Z Fighters wouldn't interfere he put his arm down and looked at them over his shoulder, "I'm going to follow them. If you want, you can come along. You'll be very helpful." And with that, he took off as well.

"What do we do?" Krillen asked, looking stricken, "Goku?"

Goku, on the other hand, looked excited, "I'm going with him." He stated. "I want to see how I can help out!"

"Are you sure?" asked Nira, feeling suspicious.

When Goku nodded, Nira didn't feel completely convinced. She liked Goku, and his ability to see that Spopovich was dangerous was good evidence that he had good judgment, but she felt that she should wait for the others to make a decision and then decide.

Maybe I should go too." Krillen muttered, looking frightened, "I have a bad feeling about this…" he turned, "Go ahead, I have to talk to Eighteen."

Vegeta was looking angry, "I don't care of that's the Supreme Kai!" he said, "What about our fight?"

"Now's not the time…" Goku stated.

Nira nodded, if this kept Vegeta from facing off with Goku then this might not be such a bad idea.

"Don't cheat out on me!" he growled, "I want to settle this fight between us once and for all! That's why I came to this _stupid_ contest."

"Fine," Goku huffed, "we don't have to fight at the Budokai. We'll face off later."

"Asshole." The Saiyan prince grumbled, "You only have one day left in this world."

"Well, just follow me for now. We'll fight later."

Piccolo took off, "I'm going."

Making her mind up quick, Nira took after him, "If you're going I'm going too!"

She heard someone in the crowd call her name. Hovering, she looked down to see Bulma and the rest looking up at her. Yamcha put his hands up by his mouth and shouted. "Where are you going?!"

"Not sure yet!" Nira called back at him. "But don't worry, we'll come back in one piece."

With Yamcha looking puzzled and to degree afraid, Nira turned on her tail and followed Piccolo.


	12. Home Invasion

When they caught up with Supreme Kai he said, "I'm glad you came. Without you, I don't think I can win."

"You can't beat those two?" Goku asked, looking somewhat surprised.

"Those two…" Kai murmured, "are just pawns in this game," His expression became grave, "lead by a cunning magician."

He told us the story of the evil magician Bibidi who lived long ago and created the incredibly powerful monster whom went by the name of Buu. In the span of only a few years it had destroyed hundreds of planets and the other four Supreme Kais, but Buu would be disobedient from time to time. Bibidi sealed him in a ball before heading to Earth, which had been his next target, but the last Supreme Kai had been waiting for that moment and killed Bibidi.

Supreme Kai didn't try to destroy the Buu, he thought it was best to leave where it was and disturb it as little as he could. He was sure that only Bibidi could break the seal on the ball and waken Buu once more. Except that wasn't true.

Only recently had they learned that the evil magician had a child, Babidi, and he was every ounce as terrible and deplorable as his father.

"How will he break the seal?" Nira asked with trepidation.

"Babidi will need lots of energy to break it." He explained, "That is why those two had been sent to the Budokai, so they could find someone with enough energy to break the seal. That's why we came to it as well," He looked over his shoulder at her, "and why we let them take Gohan's energy. We don't know where they have taken Buu's sphere so we're following them."

"What would happen…" the Morakian thought aloud, "If Buu were to wake up?"

Supreme Kai turned back to the front and didn't answer for a moment, "If we are unable to keep Buu from waking up, its my deepest regret to say that it would probably destroy this world."

Nira's eyes widened and for a moment she faltered. She wanted to say something but her throat had mysteriously constricted.

"If he's that dangerous," Goku said after they had all absorbed the news, "why didn't you act when Bibidi was defeated?"

"I couldn't have done anything." Supreme Kai with an air if thinning patience, "We were afraid that Buu's seal would be broken. Also, the sphere was in a dangerous area."

Nira, was it?" The god of the kais said, "You are a part of the Morakian race, correct?"

"Oh, yeah." She answered, befuddled by the question.

"Yours is a particularly young race," he thought aloud, "Your ancestors were able to adapt amazingly fast," he looked her in the eye, "And still are."

"What do you mean?" The alien asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"That amazing ability of yours." He continued, "The one that you alone had among the Morakians, show it to me, please."

Nira was painfully aware that everyone was staring at her. Determined not to be cowed she raised her right palm and ripples of music started to flow from it. This time it was a little like white noise, since Nira wasn't feeling particularly inclined to give any true melody.

He nodded, "Use your mind reading ability and hold touch my hand." He asked, holding out his hand for Nira to take.

She eyed it for a second before raising her left hand and touching his wrist, suddenly the music became like the sound of bells. It sounded something like hope… or maybe something like sorrow…

**MUSIC FOUND HERE:**

** watch?v=OB6SJkc1sGg**

Everyone was silent as the music began to crescendo. Nira didn't know how she was doing it, it was if Supreme Kai was the conductor and he was using Nira as the baton. Nira's spirits began to soar and sink at the same time. It was frustrating but beautiful all the same.

"Supreme Kai." Nira suddenly heard Kibito say. She quickly released him and the music died as suddenly as it had been born.

**DBZ**

The group continued to follow Yamu and Spopovich until they came to a rocky area covered in small mountains. Everyone lowered their power and hugged the side of a mountain to spy on the two pawns.

They were standing before a small pod, the ground around it looked like it had been dug up. An alien came out to great them but with the high winds Nira couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Damn him!" Kibito growled, " He hid his ship under ground, that's why we couldn't find him!"

"The means he knows we're here on Earth." Supreme Kai realized. "That must be why he's hiding."

Piccolo looked frantic, "Lets hurry and attack before they resurrect Buu!"

Nira's eyes widened but before she could do or say anything Kai said, "Don't worry. They'll revive him on the surface so he won't destroy the ship." He reassured them, "Let's wait a little longer."

Sighing softly, Nira relaxed her shoulders a fraction as the one of them went back inside the shuttle. The wind picked up and the unexpected smell of gore and blood nearly made Nira gag.

Gohan gave her a concerned look as she raised herself up a little to see where the smell came from. When she saw the home and the bodies around it she wish she hadn't. Gohan followed her eyes to the family that had been slaughtered and seethed along with her.

"They're monsters." She whispered as flashbacks fought to overtake her.

Gohan put a calm hand on her shoulder, "We'll get them." He said softly, although inside he was raging.

"Something's coming out." Piccolo announced quietly.

A small, greenish brown alien floated outside followed by a large bright red man with horns, very large ears, and a black moustache – beard combo.

"Babidi's possessed Dabura!" Kibito gasped, "The King of Demons!"

"I didn't know he was capable of controlling Dabura." Supreme Kai grunted.

"Who? The big one?" Goku asked.

"Correct." Kai answered.

"Is he strong?"

"Of course, he is the Demon Lord of Darkness." The alien answered, glaring at the scene before him. "One of you is probably strongest in this universe, but Darbura is the strongest in the Universe of Evil."

Nira swallowed, they can be truly in over their heads with this, but if there was a chance that Buu were to wake up and destroy her home, well, she would just have to do everything in her power to make them go through hell.

Gohans voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "That means the little one is Babidi."

"That's right."

"He's controlling the others?"

"He's not strong himself," Supreme Kai explained, "So he has to use others. Don't underestimate him though," he warned, "he has incredible magic. Powerful enough to make Dabura his play thing."

Piccolo looked shocked, "His magic is strong enough to bend people to his will?

"No, Babidi manipulates them through the evil in their hearts to let them do what they think they wanted to do all along."Kibito said, "Dabura was an obvious choice." He continued, "This is Babidi's most fearsome spell. Yamu, Spopovitch and the others were taken by this. That's why only the pure of heart should confront him."

This statement made Nira nervous. She knew for sure she wasn't pure of heart, there was too much hate dwelling inside her, like a dark void that she's forced to look into every time she closed her eyes. The others probably new nothing of it, except for Piccolo, that was one of things that made him most unsure about teaching her, but he should be the only one, she always made sure to hide that darkness well. What would she do if Babidi would try to open herself to that darkness?

_I'd _fight_ it, of course_. She told herself, a bead of sweat coming down her neck.

_Would you?_ The darkness whispered back.

Nira shivered and quickly shut herself from that place.

Her eyes traveled to Vegeta, he was definitely not pure of heart, he's done many evils, and Nira saw the darkness lurking in him. He'd be a perfect candidate.

Nira could only hope that his loathing of being ordered around like a slave would overcome that.

She noticed that Piccolo was giving her strange look, he had probably been poking around in her head, and she tried not to let her worry leek anymore into her thoughts or expression. Instead, she focused solely on the mission.

"We weren't expecting Dabura to be here…" Supreme Kai muttered, "Now that there's both Dabura and Babidi…"

"Are you saying that we can't win?" Vegeta scowled.

Supreme Kai hardly got a word out before Vegeta continued, "So if this Buu guy is brought back, this world is toast." He stated, "I won't let that happen, I wouldn't lose to the likes of them."

_Hm,_ Nira thought, _Maybe he won't let himself be controlled by Babidi if it were to happen…"_

Goku turned around, "Krillen, go back." He told him, "This is more dangerous than I thought."

Nira nodded when he didn't look convinced, "Go be with your family." She said, _Because this might be the last time you get to have that chance. _She thought grimly.

A shaky smile formed on Krillen's face, "I better do that." He chuckled nervously, "It doesn't look like I can help anyhow…"

Just then there was an agonized shriek came from below. The Z Fighters quickly looked to see what was going on. Spopovich was bloated to a disgusting degree, his eyes were bulging and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth, then, a sickening squelching noise came and Spopovich had exploded, leaving blood and body parts everywhere!

Nira clapped her hand over her mouth, suddenly feeling ill.

Yamu took to the air, trying to run for it, but the alien with the large mouth from before shot him with a ki blast, blowing him to smithereens.

"Th-They killed their own…" Gohan gaped, "What are they?!"

The group watched in stunned silence as Babidi and the alien went into the pod, leaving Dabura outside. He turned around, and the feeling inside Nira grew.

_Does he…?_ She thought to herself, straightening up a little.

He looked up to where they were hiding.

_Oh, shit._

"HE KNOWS!" Nira shrieked as Dabura shot towards them like a bright red firework.

Before any other reaction could be made Dabura was in front of Kibito, he held out his hand flat, right in front of the pink aliens face, and blew him away.

Nira leaped away from the danger of the blast, it was too late for Kibito, he had been dead on impact. She found his ki above them when she didn't see him. He looked like he was working up some saliva.

"Watch out!" Supreme Kai cried, "Don't let his saliva touch you!"

But it was too late. He had already gotten Krillen and Piccolo.

"Piccolo!" Nira yelped in fear, coming towards him, "Krillen?!"

Supreme Kai put his arm out if front of her, "Don't get near them." He warned her. She felt conflicted, he was no doubt just trying to protect her but her rational judgment was wrestling with the need to protect.

Before Nira could decide either way, Krillen was beginning to turn into stone. His cries died in his throat as his airways stopped working and then he was solid gray, a look of pure terror on his face. Same with Piccolo.

"P-Piccolo?!" Nira faltered, becoming unnaturally still, "… Krillen?"

She was barely away of the maniacal laughter coming from Dabura as he watched panic with glee.

"They've become stone." Supreme Kai explained. "If you break them, they'll never change back!"

It felt like everything was beginning to shut down.

The sky was becoming dark.

There were screams.

_Shrieks of pain_.

"_NIRA!"_

_NIRA, HELP US. PLEASE."_

"_Corren… Riz?" Nira cried softly, she couldn't move._

"_NIRA?! HE'S HURTING US."_

"_HELP US!"_

"_MOMMY?! DADDY?!"_

"_I – I'm co-oming." She said, ordering her body to move. Tears were falling down her face, both from pain and terror. "L-Let them g..go."_

"_NIRA!"_

"_NIR-"_

_There was a bodily thump. Blood soaked onto the frozen ground as Riz lay there, his lifeless eyes staring back at her. His head had been bashed in._

_It suddenly felt as if the air had been sucked out of her. There was no air to speak with. There was only the lifeless white of her youngest brothers eyes._

_He was only three when they left._

_He couldn't be more than ten, his ears were still pricked._

"_NIRA, I LOVE Y-"_

_There was another thump and Corren was laying beside Riz, the hair on their heads wee almost touching. Fresh, red blood was trickling out of his mouth. Bruises littered his face and arms and neck._

_His ears were pricked too._

_Tears were flowing freely from her eyes now, her breath came in short, pained pants. _

"_Corren…?" she whispered. "… Riz?"_

_Then there was maniacal laughter and another Saiyans voice joined the fray. Nira couldn't turn to see what they were doing, she couldn't tear her eyes of her brothers lifeless forms. _

_Suddenly, blinding pain erupted through her veins and she had passed out._

_Almost no one would be able to hear the words she tried to say in-between the waterfall of tears and pants that caused hot pain to sear her lungs, but if they listened hard enough, they would've heard "I love you, too."_


	13. The Darkness

"Nira?!"

"No, stay away from her!"

The Z Fighters watched with horror as Nira began to shake violently. Her eyes were blank and her breaths were coming in short, pained gasps. No matter what anyone did she wouldn't respond to anything anybody said.

"She's having a very vivid flashback." Supreme Kai explained, "I'm not sure what she's going to do when she comes back to reality, she could even change into one of those monsters."

"What is she having a flashback about?" Gohan asked, tearing his eyes away from his friend.

Supreme Kai was quiet for a moment as he watched Nira's knees buckle from underneath her as she slowly awoke from the painful memory.

He took a deep breath, "Her two brothers dying before her eyes." His expression was pained, "… They were screaming for her to save them…" His voice shook and died.

Vegeta and the others watched as Nira blinked, a quaky whine escaping her parted lips but none came near. She got on her hands and knees, looking confused as if she had no idea where she was, until her eyes landed on Piccolo and Krillen, now statues.

Recognition sparked in her eyes and she crawled towards them.

"Nira…?" the Kai spoke up softly.

Her eyes flicked to him as she held one hand out for her mentor. She stopped, looking like a deer in the headlights.

He came closer, "Nira? Can you, please, step away from them? We'll fix them, I promise."

The lone Morakian slowly put her hand down, not taking her eyes off of Supreme Kai. "How?" she asked quietly.

"We just have to kill Dabura." The purple alien said, "As long as nothings wrong with them when that happens they'll come back exactly as we left them."

Nira fixed him with a shrewd, calculating stare. Her head was becoming clearer with every moment. She got up, dusting off her pants. Her hands shook a little and she hid them behind her back.

"Alright then." She stated, trying to sound as if nothing was wrong at all. "They better."

She turned on them and flew down to the ground. When she noticed that they hadn't followed her she turned around. "Are you coming or what?"

Vegeta grunted and was the first to follow her. Goku, Gohan, and Supreme Kai not far behind.

"You shouldn't do this." The god of the Kais said, looking frustrated, "This is exactly what he wants you to do, that's why he didn't attack you."

Nira narrowed her eyes, "You said we can fix them if we kill Dabura." She said quietly, her voice filled with suppressed, cold fury. "You shouldn't expect to say that and expect no one to do anything about it."

"Yes, well," he began to say, looking like he was being backed in a corner.

"Too bad for you." Vegeta smirked, "We Saiyans, and Morakians, have no patience."

Nira nodded, "Then lets get to it, then. I'm sick of wasting time."

Inside the pod there was a hole that dropped straight down. Nira hopped in after Gohan and Goku, ignoring the tension in her stomach.

_I promised_. She thought scornfully, _I promised we'd come back in one piece._

**DBZ**

When they landed it was in a circular room with one door. Nira took a deep whiff and when no out of the ordinary came to her attention she settled for keeping a sharp ear out.

"Its just an empty room…" Goku wondered, "What is this place?"

"Theres a door over there. Should we break it?" Gohan pointed out.

Nira head Supreme Kai coming down the hole before anyone else knew he was even there. When he landed he was looking constipated.

"So you've decided to join us, eh?" Goku said.

"Only because of your foolishness." He snapped.

Nira head the soft hiss of something closing and looked up. "It closed." She blinked.

"It seems that once you come in, you don't leave without defeating Babidi." Supreme Kai mused.

Vegeta humphed, "I could _destroy _this ship if I wanted to."

"Try it." Kai snarled, "If you make a big enough shock, Buu might awaken!"

Nira's attention was pulled away when the echo of footsteps took her attention. They were coming closer… they were behind the door.

"Guys." She warned them just before the lone door opened. The alien with the big mouth was standing before them with his arms crossed.

"Babidi is on the bottom floor." He said in a reedy voice, "However, you'll have to get through me first." His lip curled, "You can't go down without defeating me. That means you're going to die here." He chuckled darkly.

"Nah." Goku stated, grinning crookedly "I don't think so."

**DBZ**

The wizard Babidi plunk the machine that had taken Gohan's energy in the large, pulsing pink egg.

"Incredible!" he yelped, "How'd they get so much energy? They got almost half the needed supply.

"What do you mean?" Dabura inquired, looking surprised.

Instead of answering, Babidi asked a question himself, "How many hundreds of people did it take to get this?"

"I didn't ask…"

Babidi cursed, "If I knew they had gotten that much energy in

such a short period of time, I wouldn't have killed them."

"Oh well," Dabura hummed, "With those three fighting, we'll probably get a full tank. If all goes well, Buu may be resurrected this very day."

"Of course, that is why I lured them here." The wizard smirked, "I wonder if Pui Pui had taken care of them yet."

The two flew up a level where Babidi's magic ball resided.

"Let's see…" he murmured, peering into it, then gasped, "They haven't even started?!"

**DBZ**

"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!"

Pui Pui stared in amazement as the four threw their fists down. Gohan lost first, then Nira, then Goku.

"I won." Vegeta said, looking triumphant.

"You're going to fight him _alone_?" Supreme Kai gaped.

"Of course." The Saiyan prince scoffed, "He's no match for me."

Nira heard the alien say under his breath, "Lord Babidi said to be careful because they're strong, but it looks like they're just stupid."

"Wouldn't be so sure of that." Nira said loudly, staring at the stricken Pui Pui with cold eyes. "Its you and your Lord Babidi who are the idiots for messing with the wrong planet."

"We happen to be the strongest in the universe." Vegeta pointed out, "You're going to regret underestimating us."

Pui Pui recovered from the shock of being overheard and began to cackle. "You – the strongest?! What a joke!"

Supreme Kai stepped forward to intervene but Goku grabbed him by the arm. "Don't underestimate Babidi!" He told them, "He's got strong fighters."

"Hey," Goku said, trying to calm the Kai down, "let Vegeta handle this."

"I told you once before: You're not going to leave here alive." Pui Pui sniffed, "All the damage you'll receive will become energy that this room will absorb, which will be used to revive Lord Buu!"

"I guess I don't have to worry." The Saiyan prince smirked, "If I don't get hurt, I won't lose energy."

"That's right." The alien hummed, "But its not going to happen."

"Enough chatter." Vegeta growled, "Lets get this over with. Come and get me!"

Nira crossed her arms as she waited for Pui Pui to make the first move. She could already tell that he would be no match for Vegeta, but the thought of any damage they get would go straight Buu made her just a little anxious.

Then she remembered Piccolo and Krillen back on the cliff and the culprit, Dabura, and a surge of anger and a total disregard of Buu surged through her. It felt like a punch to the gut and she had to swallow the anger that felt like lava erupting up her throat back down.

Supreme Kai gave her a frightened look and she blanched. He had obviously noticed the silent outburst of rage.

Pui Pui came at Vegeta with a kick but the Saiyan dodged and grabbed him by the ankle before kicking him in the gut, sending him crashing into the wall. The evil alien got back up, looking angry, but Vegeta was there to meet him with a kick to the face, rocketing him upward and causing him to bounce off the walls. When Pui Pui recovered he was bleeding from the mouth.

**DBZ**

"Oh my." Babidi gasped softly, "This is interesting…"

"What is, my Lord?" Dabura asked, looking into the crystal ball.

"The girl, I just felt it," he said, an evil smile beginning to appear on his face, "She had much hate in her, much anger. She would make a great servant."

"Perhaps we should wait for her to show her skill." The Demon Lord mused.

"Yes, yes, good idea." The evil wizard murmured. "We shall see soon enough…"

**DBZ**

"Over here, fool!" Vegeta jeered when Pui Pui didn't seem him before pummeling in the chest with a blizzard of punches.

Suddenly, the landscape changed into a dark, barren land full of large craters.

"What happened?" Gohan yelped, "Where are we?"

"A bead of sweat rolled down Supreme Kai's face as he explained, "This is Babidi's doing. He used his magic to change the room. This is a more favorable place for Pui Pui."

"This is the end of the line for you!" Pui Pui howled in victory, "This place has ten times Earth's gravity! I was raised on this planet!"

"So?" Vegeta scoffed, "A mere ten times is nothing."

Nira was with Vegeta on this one. Her home planet was at least one hundred times Earth's gravity and the planet she had been stranded on was three hundred times. She could barely feel a difference at all.

Pui Pui looked taken aback for a moment before accusing, "You're bluffing!"

The Saiyan prince merely smirked, "You'll see if I am." Before lunging towards the other alien and blowing him to smithereens before he could even react.

"Hmph," he grumbled, "That damn Babidi giving me a boring opponent…"

"Don't be a brat." Nira reprimanded, strolling towards the hole in the ground that had just opened up.

There were mingled comments like:

"Its like a video game!"

"This is stupid."

"Come on, Supreme Kai!"

As they flew down the hole until they came to a room identical to the one before.

**DBZ**

"Aren't they ready yet?" Goku pouted, "Hurry up!"

"This is stupid. Why don't we just break the floor and go down already?" Vegeta grouched.

"You can't!" Supreme Kai said, looking panicked, "Like I said, Buu could be awakened!"

"I bet Buu isn't such a big deal." Vegeta said, looking over his shoulder at the Kai. "Just like that Dabura bastard."

At the Demon Lords name Nira opened one eye from where she had been meditating on floor near the wall. She had been trying to alleviate the anger simmering just below her navel, but it wasn't doing so well with all of the noise.

"What about Dabura?" Supreme Kai questioned.

"All I'm saying is that Dabura isn't as tough as you made him out to be." He sniffed. "Besides his spit, he isn't that impressive, judging from his movements and attacks. Kibito was just clumsy.

Supreme Kai gaped Vegeta incredulously before turning to Goku, "Is that true, Goku?"

Yeah." He answered, than added as an after thought, "Well, even if that wasn't his full strength he would have been a strong opponent a while ago, but…" he paused to arrange his thoughts, "seven years ago we fought Cell. Dabura's probably at about that same power level."

When Supreme Kai didn't respond, Goku turned back to the door, "Hurry up! It's my turn next!"

They probably weren't expecting the large monster that came out. It was about the size of two Goku's and its hands and feet had three long toes/fingers tipped with long claws.

Nira hopped to her feet as the monster drew closer, "What is that?"

It didn't respond, instead, it took a swing at Goku who was closest. Goku dodged but the thing was thinking ahead and jumped up so it was above Goku. The Saiyan rushed to get out of its way and back to the ground.

"He's surprisingly fast." Nira commented, coming to stand beside Gohan.

"For his size, yeah." He agreed, looking thoughtful.

Supreme Kai looked over his shoulder to say, "Lets gang up on him!" he was looking positively frantic,

"Nah, it'll be okay." Gohan reassured him, "Dad can handle this."

Nira continued to watch as the battle as two large scythe – type claws erupted out of the monsters wrists.

"They're retractable!" Goku yelped.

Suddenly a wheezy sort of voice echoed through the room, cackling, "He's scared! Scare him more by finishing this fast. That's good, Yakon. You're great! Kill them all except for Supreme Kai! Take all of their energy!" he cheered, "That will be enough to revive Buu. In order to make this faster." The voice added, sounding gleeful, "I'll tkat you to your favorite planet – the Dark Abyss, the planet of darkness."

Nira assumed that Yakon was the monster and the voice was Babidi's. She growled softly as the room became incredibly dark. Nira couldn't see her hand in front of her face, even when it was pressed on her nose. She could feel her sense shift away from her eyes to the sense of touch, smell, and hear.

It smelled like damp and the ground beneath her was soft, there was various irritable mutterings and scuffles as the others found themselves in the advanced darkness. She located four kis swiftly.

"I can't see a thing!" Goku gasped from somewhere a couple yards in front of her.

The monster released a deep, croaky cackle, "But I can see _you _perfectly."

Nira felt him leap upward before lunging towards Goku's ki. Goku dodged it and kicked Yakon in the face. The creature gasped with surprise and confusion.

"You really underestimated us." The Saiyan said, "Even though its dark, we can easily determine your movements. We can sense your ki, and there are other ways for us to see you if we want to."

It had suddenly become very bright as Goku went Super Saiyan. Nira blinked away the imprint on her eyes so she could focus.

"There," Goku said triumphantly, "I can see you now! You should have known that it was pointless to darken the room."

The monster merely leered at Goku hungrily, "So the Dark Abyss isn't working…"

"What?" Goku asked, "Aren't you worried at all?"

Yakon didn't answer but seemed to unhinge his jaw and began inhaling deeply. For a moment it wasn't obvious what he was doing until the light around Goku suddenly pulled away from him and into the monster's gaping maw. It swallowed it down and the world was plunged into inky blackness once more.

"What the - ? It's dark again!" Gohan gasped.

"Wrong!" Vegeta corrected him, "Its Goku who's turned back to normal."

"That's right!" Supreme Kai said, suddenly remembered something, "Yakon eats light energy, so Goku's Super Saiyan form is the ideal snack!"

"That was delicious!" the monster said, proving the Kai's statement, "I've never had a better meal before in my life!"

"You _ate_ that?" Goku gasped, apparently not had head a word that Supreme Kai had said.

Nira felt Gohan cup his hands around his mouth, "Dad, don't change into Super Saiyan again!" He eats light energy."

"That's right." Yakon chuckled, "By all means, go ahead and do it again. It'd be a perfect treat. That was marvelous light."

The was a pause before Goku said brightly, "Okay, then. I'll feed you again."

"What?" The monster asked, sounding surprised.

"What is he thinking?!" Nira said sharply.

"Dad, I'm going to help you!"

Again, a bright light illuminated the dark planet as Goku turned Super Saiyan, "No thanks!" he responded, "I'll fight him myself. Stay out of this guys!"

Yakon giggled, "I'm so happy you're such an idiot! Now I can feast again!"

"Goku's being foolish!" Supreme Kai cried, "Why does he have to fight alone? This isn't a game!"

"Shut up and watch." Vegeta said, "He's got a plan."

Nira silently thanked the Saiyan for stopping the Kai's frantic naggings. His negativity was beginning to grate on her nerves.

When Yakon began sucking up Goku's energy it looked like it would be just like before until Goku went Super Saiyan Two, chucking out even more of the energy. Nira saw the triumphant look on his face and the pieces suddenly clicked. _He's overfeeding him_ she thought to herself, not saying it out loud in case Yakon would hear.

Sure enough, the monster began blowing up like a big balloon before exploding!

The hole opened up and Goku led the way, still shining brightly.

When the five went down it, Nira was too absorbed in her own thoughts to spare an ear to any of her comrades.

_He was so powerful._ She thought, her brow furrowing, _What an amazing ki, and I don't think that was all of it. He's probably much, much stronger._ Goku's power intimidated her a little. It felt improbable that someone like him could even exist.

"You're next, Nira." Goku said. She blinked, she had almost forgotten. "Do you think you can take whoever it is on?"

"I think so…" she murmured, feeling insignificant next to the Saiyan.

"Think so?" Gohan gasped, "Dad, she's way strong!"

"But all of those times I lost to Piccolo-"

"That was because you were tired from not sleeping." Vegeta grunted, "And you were too afraid of using your full power because you nearly killed the Namek that one time."

Nira stared at him, looking scandalized, "How did you know about tha-"

"You nearly killed Piccolo?" Goku asked, looking a little suspicious.

Flushing, she toed the floor with her bare feet, "It was an accident." She mumbled, "He woke me up from a night terror and I attacked him without realizing what was going on, it was a reaction."

The Saiyan opened his mouth but before he could Gohan intervened, "That doesn't really matter, thing is Nira's great when she's on form. You should see her when she uses her sound technique for battles!"

Goku smiled but changed the subject, "Have you been training, Gohan?"

"Huh?"

"He was lulled by the peace and hasn't been training much." Vegeta said, "We're probably stronger than him now."

"He used to be fierce when he got mad…" Goku murmured.

Gohan scratched his head, looking sheepish.

The door hissed open before any more could be said and Dabura walked out. "I congratulate you." He said in an articulate voice, "It's amazing that mere humans could have defeated Yakon and gotten this far. However," he continued, "this is the end of the line because you're going to be facing me."

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday! Had a late class and was just too tired to write. So here's an extra long chapter as an apology.**


	14. The Internal Struggle

Nira's had to fight the primal urge to rip the Demon Lord to shreds. She couldn't let her anger control her, just like Piccolo had taught her from the very beginning, she had to keep a level head even in the most chaotic instances. Pure strength would get her nowhere without a good brain to go with it.

"So you, Babidi's right hand man, is finally going to fight us." Vegeta smirked, "Babidi's really disappointing me."

Dabura merely gazed at the Saiyan coolly, "Enough foolish talk. Why don't you all attack me?" he inquired.

Nira stepped forward, snarling. "Not going to happen. Its my turn." Her hands were clenched tightly to keep her from making any irrational moves.

This time, their words seemed to affect him. His eyes narrowed dangerously, "What did you say?" he sneered, "How _dare_ you mock me!"

Suddenly, the landscape changed into something more dry and full of hills.

"I'll teach you some proper manners, girl!"

Losing her patience, the Morakian surged forward and began throwing punches at a blinding rate, but Dabura merely put his arms up to shield his face. Nira resorted to kicking him. When he had dodged her, she decided it was time for a feint, finally catching him in the gut. He bended over, heaving, and she sent a strong kick into his face, sending him flying into a nearby mountain.

Nira could tell that she probably won't be able to take him, at least not alone, but in her mind was clouded with the rage that bubbled just under her surface.

Dabura brushed off the dust on his cape, looking frustrated, and pulled back swallowing a large amount of air before hurling ajr of flame out of his mouth. There was no time for Nira to dodge, it was coming at her too fast, instead, she raised one hand and the ripples of erupted from the palm, followed by the sound of a million gongs. It deflected the tongues of fire, but when they were gone, so was Dabura.

Instead of looking for him with her eyes, Nira pricked her ears and heard a _whoosh_ of wind from behind her. She leaped into the air before Dabura could catch her. The Morakian sent a counter attack, a large and powerful ki blast. The Demon Lord dodged it, the edge of his cape catching fire when it brushed against the blast. While he was preoccupied putting out the fire he didn't notice Nira charging forward.

She tried to rake her claws into his face but he noticed at the last minute and he dodged. Again, they began their little dance of punches and kicks that didn't last very long. The sparks of Nira's burning hate began to grow with every second.

The alien girl suddenly flew away from her opponent, a grimace set in her eyes. Dabura began to peruse her but something hit his shoulder forcefully, causing him to cry out in alarm.

The ki blast Nira had shot earlier had separated into a dozen smaller balls when it impacted the ground, all honing in on Dabura.

He shot after Nira again, obviously trying to get her caught in the blast, but she knew this trick and she dodged at the last second. An idea formed in her mind and crossed her arms, completely stationary. She was waiting for Dabura to come after her again.

He predictably did so, for three times in fact, and each time Nira escaped it at the last second, always staying a little longer to give the impression that she was tiring. Dabura nearly fell for it, too, until Nira led him right at the face of a mountain, where he wouldn't be able to continue forward, and the ki blasts will pummel him. But he was too fast, realizing what she was planning he rocketed upward after her, causing the blasts to blow away the mountain.

Beads of perspiration began to drip from the Moraks brow. It wasn't from exhaustion, it was from frustration.

"Just _DIE ALREADY_!" she shrieked, thrusting her hands out where blasts of sound, the sound of waterfalls, erupted from them. It destroyed every inch of an unfortunate mountain that it touched as she started to swing her hands upward at Dabura. Unfortunately, this attack was slower and Dabura was able to dodge it every time, even when it got so close.

Giving up on it, she pelted after the Demon Lord.

The other three watched from the sidelines.

"So, this is her sound manipulation?" Goku asked, "That's a pretty neat trick, especially the shield one."

"Who _cares_." Vegeta growled, "She's obviously not going to be able to defeat him in her state."

"I guess your right about that..." Goku murmured, "But you can't deny that she is strong, maybe she'll get lucky?"

Vegeta glowered at him, "She's too god damn emotional, all mutts are, their not suited for this kind of fighting." He snarled, "Even if she could kill she won't do it, because mutts don't like killing." He simpered. "This is missing me off!"

"I don't know, Vegeta." Gohan mumbled, "Have you ever seen her when she falls asleep?"

"How come you know what she looks like when she falls asleep?" Goku asked his son.

The young man shrugged, "I came over with Goten to say hi one day and I saw her asleep on the lawn. Her ki kept doing weird things, going from really low to extremely high in an instant. She looked like she was in a lot of pain." He looked at his shoes, "but then something really weird happened, she started changing in her sleep. Like to a Saiyans great ape, but… more like Godzilla."

"Nira can change?" his father gasped.

"Sorta." Gohan answered, "But they change when their feeling surges of emotion, usually negative emotions.

Which means that she probably feeling very angry in her sleep and began changing. Nira knows how to control her emotions when she's awake, its one of the main reasons that she wanted to be trained, but in her sleep…

But, then, she stopped mid transformation."

"What do you mean?" Vegeta grunted.

"I mean she stopped changing, she started shrinking back to her normal self but there was something weird going on." He looked up at the battle. Nira had just been thrown into the water, "Her ki was skyrocketing, even higher than I had ever seen it go. It was…." He paused, "Like she was going _Super Saiyan._"

Both Saiyans and the Supreme Kai turned to look at him, their eyes wide.

"_Did_ Nira go Super Saiyan?"

Gohan shook his head, "She woke up before she could, I think." He said thoughtfully, "But when she opened her eyes, they weren't brown any more."

"What color were they?"

He shrugged, "They turned back before I got a good look at them, but I swear they were almost… _glowing._"

Nira had come shooting out of the water with a great _BOOM_. She was using her sound waves to help her speed up. Dabura turned around and sent a wad of spit her way. Nira tried to stop and swerve away but her momentum was working against her, he caught her in the chest.

Thinking fast, she threw the purple over-shirt off, left only with the dark blue under shirt. She saw Piccolo's emblem shatter on the ground.

And she couldn't help but think _That was Piccolo. _Her anger surged through her and she dodged Dabura's blade that he had been bringing down on her while her attention was away.

She sent a thin blast of noise that sounded like nails on a chalkboard right back at him. He brought his blade up, probably thinking that it would deflect it, but the sound hit the blade, making it shake widely before breaking clean in half.

They stared at her each other, both panting slightly, "You fucking piece of filth." Nira seethed, "I'm going to make you _beg_ for your life before I kill you."

Oh, if her mother heard her give such an insult she would be in so much trouble.

"I'm going to finish this off!" Vegeta snarled.

"Don't do that!" Goku told him, "It's not like she's losing or anything."

Vegeta glared at him, "I don't enjoy this foolishness! I'm going to end this so I can settle things with you!" pointing his finger at him, "That's the only reason I came to this stupid tournament."

Nira saw Debura smirking her way before leering at Vegeta. Thinking that he was going to pull something funny, she lunged at him, but was caught off guard when the scenery suddenly changed into the spaceship. The sudden change did something wacky with her senses and she ended up missing him and hitting the wall, making a remarkable dent in it.

She pulled away from the curved wall, cursing foully, and saw Dabura zipping back to the only door and it closing firmly behind him but before it closed fully he said, "Don't worry girl, I think I've just found the ideal opponent for you, plus a little extra."

Nira let out a howl of rage and tried to pursue, only to be blocked by Supreme Kai.

"Don't do anything foolish!" he warned, looking frighened her, "If you break down the door you might awaken Buu-"

"I don't _care!"_ she growled, frustration coursing through her veins, "I want that Demon bastards head _in my hands!_"

There was a cackle from behind her, she whipped around to glare at Vegeta, "And what is so funny?!" she asked quietly, her demeanor becoming even more frightening.

"I was just wondering how a mutt like you thinks she'd be able to face Dabura." He smirked wickedly, an angry tint in her eyes. "You're pathetic, your kind decided to live on a desert planet rather than fight for fresh meat."

A chill seeped through Nira's limbs, "And who, might I remind you, dumped us there in the first place?" she asked in an alarmingly calm voice. "Oh, that's right, it was the Saiyans, the ones that choose a life of servitude for Frieza just so they can destroy a few planets, hmm? What, did you _like _to be servants? You couldn't just go ahead and destroy those planets on your own time, god knows you probably could've."

At the mention of servants for Frieza the smirk fell off of Vegeta's face. "Watch your tongue before I rip it out!" He roared. "I'll put you in your place you fucking mutt!"

Before Nira could say anything agony ripped through her head. She yelped, holding her head in her hands. Vegeta had done the same, but he was yelling in pain.

_He's right there_ a voice whispered.

_The one that was friends with the one you killed your brothers._

Nira fell to her knees, withering in agony, her cries becoming louder and louder.

_Let me take control._ The darkness said.

_He's a Saiyan, the prince of Saiyans, the evil Saiyans._

_Done so many evils._

_Let me take control._

_I'll make you powerful._

_So much power._

_They couldn't stop you if they tried._

_Let your anger lead._

_Corren and Riz would've wanted you to avenge them._

Flashes of Riz and Corren flashed before her eyes, her home planet, her family, it had exploded.

_And what of Piccolo and Krillen._

Piccolo and Krillen was the same. She was laughing with Krillen. Training with Piccolo. They had turned into stone.

No, wait, Vegeta isn't the one I want.

_They would have wanted you to._

Dabura is the one I need to defeat.

_Vegeta killed._

Vegeta helped.

Flashes of training with the Briefs started to fade into existence. She was eating with them around the dinner table. She having an eating off with Goten and Trunks. She was talking to Yamcha while Purar perched on her shoulder.

_Let me control._

…no….

_Let your anger lead._

No.

_Your brothers would want you to avenge the-_

"NOOOO!"

Suddenly, every molecule of her body started to burn with power like she never knew.

The other three that watched them with anxiety and horror. For a second, a black M flickered onto Nira's forehead before blinking out of sight. A blinding white light enveloped her as her power began to soar.

"She's – she's!"

Nira got up, feeling the strongest she had ever felt. She looked down at her arms and hands. The claws on her hands and feet had turned black as well as longer and stronger. She rubbed her fingers together, surprised to feel that her skin had become almost like hard leather. Her ears were now pricked like Piccolos and her hair had become spiky and snowy white, unlike the yellow blond of a Super Saiyan and her eyes were sea foam green.

For a minute, she stood their confused as Vegeta continued to wail. He had turned Super Saiyan Two in his attempts to fight off whatever had been attacking the both of them.

Finally realizing what was going on she shouted, "Fight it, Vegeta! Don't let it control you! Say no – SAY NO!"

**DBZ**

"What?!" Babidi snapped, staring at the crystal ball. "She's able to change too?! And how did she break my control?!"

"I don't know." Dabura said truthfully. "This comes as a surprise to me as well."

The wizard growled, "Whatever, I've still got the other one. He's under my control now, I'll just release his hidden powers and allow him to overcome his limits!"

**DBZ**

Suddenly, Vegeta's cries of pain stopped. For a moment everything was quiet until the Saiyan Prince began to laugh softly, which grew louder and louder until he was laughing maniacally.

Nira cursed softly when Vegeta straightened, a large black M scorched onto his forehead.


	15. Royal Dissapointment

For a second everything was calm, until the room changed again.

They were met by the roar of a crowd and the unlikely sight of Mr. Satan with both fists in the air. They had appeared in the Budokai.

"What in the…" Nira breathed, looking around. She spotted Bulma and the others in the road above the crowd, gawking at them. Nira realized that she was still in her Super form, she wasn't really sure how to get out of it in fact. As far as she knew, she was stuck that way.

"Shut up!" Vegeta said to no one that could bee seen, "My only target is Kakarot. I don't care about the rest."

He thrust his hand out at Goku, palm flat, and set off a powerful ki blast. Goku put his arms up but he was only just cuffed by the blow as it sailed past him –

And straight at the defenseless crowd.

Nira screamed and set off a blast of her own, hopefully setting it off its target, but she hadn't had the time to make it powerful enough to do much more than make it veer a few feet to upward. It still took out a huge chunk of the crowd. Hundreds of kis suddenly disappeared from the world.

Nira turned from the crowd to stare at Vegeta. She couldn't believe that he had done that. And right when the world was counting on him as well as everyone else. The ache of loss suddenly made itself known inside her. She hadn't thought of him as a host, but as a friend.

People began scrambling over one another to get out of the Budokai and away from the mad Saiyan.

"Vegeta, what are you doing?!" Gohan shouted.

He ignored him, instead keeping his attention of Goku, "Fight me, Kakarot." He said, "Unless you want the body count to go up."

"Vegeta, did you…" Goku asked after a beat, "let yourself get possessed on purpose?"

The Saiyan didn't answer, instead thrusting out another hand, this time directed to his left, and shot off another powerful blast of ki towards the crowd. It happened so quickly no one had time to react. Hundreds of kis disappeared once more.

Nira heard the screams of their friends and she searched for them with her eyes, even though she could feel their kis she just _had_ to see them. She nearly sighed in relief when she saw that although the blast just nearly got them, none of them have been hurt.

After knowing that they were alright she turned to glare at Vegeta. The Morakian was disappointed in him, there were no other words for it. A few hours ago she wouldn't of thought that her friend was capable of this, meaning he really wanted to do it, but now….

Goku's ki spiked and he became Super Saiyan Two.

"Goku! Don't do it!" Supreme Kai yelped, "Babidi wants you to fight! He'll use your energy to resurrect Buu!"

Goku ignored him, "Vegeta, you let yourself become possessed to make me fight as hard as I can… am I right?"

"What's dad talking about?" Gohan muttered.

"I think he's saying that he wouldn't have gotten to battle Goku because he's only here for one day, and with all of this shit that's been going on they would never have gotten the chance to battle, so that's why Vegeta did this so Goku wouldn't have a choice." Nira answered to the best of her abilities.

Vegeta nor Goku seemed to have heard her.

"If I hadn't done this, I wouldn't have been able to fight you." Vegeta stated, "You're here only for a single day, after which you'll never come back. This is the only chance I have to fight you!"

"That's it!? That's the reason for doing such a stupid thing!?" Supreme Kai accused.

"STUPID?!" Vegeta roared, "You think this is a stupid reason? This is everything to me! I don't care about Buu!" his rage continued, "He surpassed my strength! Even though we're both Saiyans, he left me in the dust! Me! The prince, whose only pride is in my strength. He even spared my life! I can't forgive that! Absolutely not!"

Although Nira was still disappointed in Vegeta, she also felt a swell of pity. Goku wasn't of nobility, and yet he had surpassed the prince of all Saiyans in more ways than one. The prince, who says his only pride is in his strength. To a Morakian, who took pride in their family, community, and sense of self, this made little sense. Nira wondered how Vegeta hadn't recognized the other things he should be proud of, like his son and wife for instance.

Nira didn't want to pity Vegeta, and she knew of he had ever found out that she had she would have her hands full, but she couldn't help it. How could one who have so much to live for, just throw it all in the backburner for something like this…

She couldn't try to say anything to make Vegeta change his mind, this was up to Goku whether he shall fight or not.

Goku threw his head back and yelled, "Babidi! Move us someplace where there are no people! I've decided to fight Vegeta!"

A low sigh escaped Nira before she could stop it.

"Wait!" Supreme Kai cried, standing between the two Saiyans, "You'll fight him over my dead body!"

Everything was silent with apprehension as the onlookers waited for Goku to make a move. To be honest, Nira hadn't expected for Goku to raise his hand, palm facing the Kai. Even Vegeta looked surprised.

"Goku….!" Nira gasped.

"Fathe..." Gohan breathed disbelievingly

It didn't look like he was kidding, light began to pulse around his hand.

Supreme Kai slowly let his arms fall back to his sides, "Fine." He said, clearly deeply disappointed, "Do as you wish."

The light around Goku's hand died and he brought it back down. "I'm sorry, Supreme Kai."

The scenery changed to a breezy desert.

"Fight as hard as you like." The god of the Kai's said, "Gohan, Nira, and I are going to break this hatch and fight Dabura and Babidi. If the shock awakens Buu, there's nothing we could have done to prevent it at this point. Its better this way, rather than have him reach full power. If we're lucky we'll be able to stop the resurrection."

Suddenly, Vegeta doubled over in pain. "I refuse!" he gasped, "I don't care what the Supreme Kai does, as long as it doesn't interfere in my fight with Kakarot." His face was contorted with pain. "I.. I said that… I only wanted to fight Kakarot." He told the voice inside his head, "I'm a proud Saiyan. I'm a prince…

I WON'T BE YOUR SLAVE!" he crowed, "EVEN THOUGH YOU'VE TAKEN OVER MY BODY AND SOUL, YOU'LL NEVER HAVE MY PRIDE!"

_So, even though Babidi practically owns him he won't obey his orders._ Nira thought to herself, _That's something, at least. He's not completely under his control._

Her attention was taken away when the hissing of gears came from the ground. The door was opening.

"It opened by itself!" Gohan gasped.

The Supreme Kai nodded, "If his ship's broken, he's in trouble."

Nira narrowed her eyes, "I don't think that's it." She muttered.

"What do you mean?" Gohan asked.

"Its just… Babidi's probably been watching us from the very beginning. That's probably why he wanted Vegeta to come after you when you talked about awakening Buu before he reaches full power." She explained, shuffling from foot to foot, "He could've opened the doors so we couldn't accidentally awaken Buu."

The two stared at her before staring at the hole.

"Well, I don't see how that matters…" Gohan murmured, "Either way, we have to go down there." He turned to Goku, "Bye, Dad! We'll be back."

"Do your best." But then paused, "Wait, I still have two senzu left. Eat one. I'm sure you used up a lot of energy." He said to Nira.

"Oh, thanks." She replied, popping the senzu bean into her mouth. It tasted bland but once she swallowed it she could feel her energy replenish, and with her stuck in Super mode as far as she knew, she felt even stronger. The strongest she had ever felt in fact.

"Wow." She gasped, flexing the muscles in her arms, "This is… incredible!"

Goku nodded, smiling. "You're a lot stronger than you were, you'll do a lot better now, but" he added, "I don't think you'll be able to defeat Dabura even now." He turned to Gohan, "I think you two should team up against him, that way you hold a much better chance."

Nira frowned but nodded, she had figured that and she had no qualms. Gohan understood as well.

"Get angry, Gohan." Goku told him, "Remember how you got angry when you fought Cell, and drew forth all of your strength? If you do that again, no one can beat you. No one! Same goes for you, Nira." He said, "I get that your afraid of using your emotions, and after seeing you battle Dabura I can see why, but you have to learn to use them, not control them, Use your anger to channel your strength, you can't let it cloud your mind like it did. And remember, you may be part Namekian," he looked her right in the eye, "but you're also part Saiyan. Use that to your advantage."

Gohan and Nira nodded.

"Its too bad this had to happen on your only day on Earth, Dad."

Goku just smiled.

**DBZ**

When the trio landed on the bottom floor they weren't surprised to see Dabura and Babidi waiting for them. Behind them was a grotesque, pink shell.

"Is that Buu's sphere?" Gohan asked.

Supreme Kai answered, "Yes."

"Killer of my father…" Babidi sneered, "I'm glad you could make it."

"I came to defeat you, Babidi." The Kai responded, "And to stop the resurrection of Buu."

Babidi huffed, "Unfortunately for you, things don't look to rosy for you guys, since I have the Demon Lord Dabura with me."

"Lets hurry, Gohan, Nira." Supreme Kai said under his breath, "While we're here, Goku's damage is being sent to Buu."

"Got it."

"Right."

The Kai looked to the duo opposite them, a look of determination on his face, "I'll fight Babidi."

Babidi hummed, apparently unaware of the trios plotting. "Buu should be coming out of the sphere pretty soon, right after he achieves full power. Its better that the ship isn't destroyed, so lets go to the surface."

"Alright." Supreme Kai growled, "But no matter what, I'm going to stop Buu from being revived."

The wizard laughed evilly, "Pappara Pa!" and the landscape had changed again. It was similar to the one that Nira had fought Dabura in earlier.

"Do you think you can defeat those Earthlings, Dabura?" he asked his henchmen.

"Of course I can." He smirked, "I fought the girl a bit earlier. I can take care of that trash."

Nira's eyes narrowed as she channeled her anger like Goku had told her. She found the bottled up emotions and willed them to rise. She immediately noticed that she wasn't as angry as she had been before, she had calmed down since then, but she didn't let herself dwell on it.

Gohan turned Super Saiyan Two from beside her. She compared their kis and found that hers was still much lower than his. She smiled wearily, accepting that fate.

Babidi giggled, "That's the way it is, Supreme Kai. I'm not going to die like my father. I have more magical energy than him and I also have Dabura."

Then a whirring beeping sound came from a dial near the sphere, catching everyones attention.

"It can't be…" the wizard said disbelievingly. "It can't be… Not that quickly…."

"Whats he talking about?" Gohan asked.

Babidi suddenly broke into a fit of hysterical giggles, "HE'S AT FULL POWER!" he howled in evil glee, "BUU'S AT FULL POWER!"

It felt like a bucket of ice water had dropped in Nira's stomach.

Babidi continued to yell in victory, "AT LAST, BUU'S GOING TO BE RESURRECTED!"

"What!?" Gohan gasped.

"This can't be happening… why…" Supreme Kai croaked, "How can Goku's damage energy have gotten that high already!?"

Nira couldn't have said anything if she wanted to, her throat had mysteriously closed up, not permitting speech.

Then, something clicked in Gohan's mind, "I know! Father's fighting at a level that surpasses Super Saiyan. Vegeta's probably fighting at that level too. When both of those high – powered people fight, the damage should be huge too!"

Nira wanted to pull her hair out, why hadn't they realized that earlier!?

"This is too much!" Supreme Kai cried, putting his hands on his head, "I've made a huge mistake!"

Steam began to erupt from the holes around the sphere. The ship melted away to the deserts near the shuttle as steam flew up high in even greater quantities.

"Its no good!" Supreme Kai gasped, "Run away, you two!"

"Hell no!" Nira snapped, "I'm not going to just stand aside and let that thing destroy the Earth!"

"Me neither!" Gohan agreed, "We can't leave things like this!"

The god of the Kais stared at them incredulously, "Don't be silly! We can't beat Buu! Even you two can't beat Buu! Theres no one who can beat him! If we stay, we'll die for sure!"

"But Supreme Kai-"

"HURRY!"

"Damnit." Gohan growled. "Nira, we've achieved full power, we have to do something at least…"

"Your right." She nodded in understanding.

The two began powering up.

"What are you doing?" Kai asked, looking confused.

"At least let us try this!" Gohan said, pulling his hands back and released a Kamehameha at Dabura and Babidi, whom flew out of the way so the blast hit Buu's sphere. Following his lead, Nira held both palms up and sent her strongest sound attacks at the sphere, they sounded like bombs going off when it hit it.

After a few moments of the onslaught the sphere came out of the thing that held it in place with a _pop_ and rolled away. Gohan and Nira stopped attacking it and watched apprehensively as it came to a stop.

The sphere opened up with a blast of pink vapor.

"_It's Buu!"_ Babidi sang jubilantly, "He's coming out!"

Then the two halves fell onto the ground, and there was nothing inside.

"Its… empty…" Dabura muttered, amazed.

"You're wrong…. That's impossible…" the wizard gaped, "That can't be… why…..?" his demeanor quickly changed from shock to desperation, "Buu! Come out! I told you to come out!"

Nira could smell the relief pouring from Suprem Kai, "Well, we're lucky!" he chuckled weakly, "Too bad Babidi! Buu was destroyed by that attack! He was sealed away for too long, and wasn't what he used to be!" he gloated triumphantly.

Dabura had seemed to have gotten over his initial shock, "It's okay, Lord Babidi. You don't need Buu, you still have me, and although he's not a perfect henchmen, you have Vegeta as well."

But Nia wasn't paying attention to any of this, she had just felt an incredible ki, and it was growing at an alarming rate. She concentrated on it, horror beginning to seep into her veins. She shared a look with Gohan, his face matched her emotions.

"It looks like Vegeta and Goku are too evenly matched, and they'll probably fight for awhile." Supreme Kai said, apparently not noticing neither Gohan or Nira's building terror. "I'll take on Babidi, and when you two defeat Dabura there'll be no trace of Babidi's evil left!" He grinned hugely, "Well, its time for you two to become angry, like Goku said! Show us the true strength of your anger! We're almost done!"

"Supreme Kai…" Nira said, beginning to tremble.

"You're… you're wrong." Gohan finished, he, too, was shaking with fear.

"Huh?"

"There's an incredible ki." Gohan panted, "… And its still growing…"

Nira watched the pink vapor rise from the shell, "Its... Its… The smoke!"

"What do you mean?" Supreme squawked, looking like the rug had been taken right from underneath him.

"The smoke, don't you see it!?" Nira cried, watching the pink cloud above them begin to come together.

"The smoke that came out of the sphere!" Gohan said, pointing at it.

Supreme Kai looked up, confusion and horror etching itself on his face, "I… I don't believe this…"

"Gohan…" Nira whispered, "How are we going to beat this thing….?"

Her friend didn't answer, instead they both stared at the vapor began to take shape. The pink gas started to solidify into… into….

"BUU!"


	16. Nira's Revenge

**WARNINGS: This chapter contains explicit gore and death!**

After the overgrown pink blob shouted his name to the high heavens he settled with staring at the group with his squinty eyes. Although it looked harmless, Nira could feel the evil energy pouring from it. There was no way this thing could exist.

The wind blew towards them and she got a whiff of the monster and frowned. He smelled like… nothing… literally nothing. Not air, or water, or anything bland but pure nothing.

"Excuse me for asking, but is that really Buu?" Gohan asked.

"He is." Supreme Kai answered in a slightly shaky voice, "I'll never forget that terrifying face…"

Although Nira would call the face far from terrifying, she couldn't deny that the creatures fearsome ki betrayed its seeming innocence.

The blob began to do some warm ups and Babidi cried, "So it really is him!" and began running toward it.

"I thought it would be bigger…." Gohan commented off – handedly.

I nudged him, hushing him.

"It's too late… we can't get away now." Supreme Kai moaned helplessly.

Nira swallowed thickly, she couldn't help but thing among the same lines.

"You're probably right." Gohan murmured, "He's very strong but… I think I might have a chance."

"What?" Nira yelped, "Not alone you can't!"

Gohan smiled grimly, "You can help, but I think Dabura is probably going to try to stop us from doing much to Buu. If he does, I need you to take care of him, alright?"

Nira brought herself to her full height, "Goku said I still don't stand a chance against him!" she hissed, "I have just as much a chance of defeating Dabura than you have a chance of beating Buu!"

Gohan glared at his friend, a sad note to his eyes, "I do if I unleash my full strength, and you do too."

Nira seemed to deflate a little, "I don't know if I can use my emotions." She admitted, "I've been taught since I was young that I couldn't do that, how am I supposed to just turn around and go against what I've been taught since I was two!?"

Gohan gave her a patient look, "You _can_ Nira. Just trust me, okay?"

The Morakian swallowed before nodding. She said that she wouldn't let Buu destroy the Earth, it was time to make good of her word.

"Hello Buu!" Babidi could be heard saying, "I'm Babidi, the son of Bibidi, your creator. You've been sealed away for a long time."

The monster opened his eyes a fraction and glared evilly at the wizard. "I'm your new master…" a note of panic in his voice, "starting now…"

Buu crossed his arms and turned away from him.

"Hey!" Babidi cried angrily, "Whats wrong with you! I'm talking to you! Hey, look at me! I'm your master!" he shouted indignantly, "_Buu!"_

The monster suddenly whirled away, screaming, "BOO!" and Babidi jumped into the air before landing back on the ground, panting with fright as the creature cackled.

"Shit." Dabura muttered darkly, "He's just an idiot!"

Babidi got up, looking angry. "I don't know why, but it looks like I made a mistake…" he paused to glare at Buu, "After he finally appears, he has no brain and even less power. He's just a piece of garbage."

The monster turned back to them and let out a shrill battle cry before running up to Dabura and getting into a battle stance.

"What?" he snapped, "You want to fight me? You're crazy." He sniggered, "That's why you're an idiot."

"It looks like you're mistaken about Buu, Supreme Kai." Gohan grinned.

"There's no mistake." He growled, "That's Buu alright."

Nira could smell the reek of fear and hate coming from the god of Kai's and knew there was no mistakes that had been made, but she was beginning to feel agree with Gohan despite herself. She wanted to believe that this monster was just more than he had been made out to be. One hand reached up and began to tug at her thick locks.

Steam shot out of the holes that covered Buu's body and he released a sound like a tea kettle. A malicious grin spread across his chubby face and the feeling in her stomach grew.

Before anyone could react Buu stuck his fingers in Dabura's eyes. Blood poured from them and he shrieked in agony. The monster kicked him, sending him flying into a mountain.

Everyone stared at the crumbling mountain. Dabura hadn't come back, although Nira could still feel his ki so he wasn't dead.

Buu began a victory dance and clapping his hands.

"_That was spectacular_!" Babidi cried in glee, apparently to be bothered with the apparent death of his favorite henchmen, "Buu, you're wonderful!"

"All of a sudden, Buu's ki suddenly increased." Gohan rambled, he was beginning to shake again, "He's strong… too strong… I can't believe this…"

Nira had accidently pulled out a bit of her hair when Buu had attacked Dabura. She was shaking as well.

"Buu, you have to do what I tell you, okay? I'm your new master!" the evil wizard explained but Buu simply made a silly face at him.

"Do you think you can rebel against me?" Babidi said in a dangerous voice, "I read and understood my father's notes, especially the spell that can imprison you in the sphere. I bet you don't want to go back in there."

This got the blob's attention. He suddenly grinned stupidly and gave a little bow in Babidi's direction, showing his subservience.

"That's more like it!" the wizard said.

"Supreme Kai… it looks like Buu is still child – like." Gohan whispered, "If we kill Babidi, maybe he won't be so bad."

"That wouldn't work!" Supreme Kai answered, a note of hysteria in his voice, "Without Babidi, we won't be able to imprison Buu. He's a terrible monster in spite of his appearance. Eventually, Babidi won't be able to control him and will have to put him back in the sphere. We'll have to wait until then. There's nothing I can do," he added, his voice breaking, "and I'm a Supreme Kai. I loathe myself. I was sure we could defeat Babid and keep Buu from being resurrected.

"If only I'd have know that you humans had surpassed my power… we could have tried the other way."

"What other way?" Nira asked, her voice quiet.

"It's too late. We won't be able to escape from Buu." He said softly, resigned, "Neither one of us will survive."

"None of that!" Nira growled. "You brought us into this mess and for the love of _god_ we are going to get out of it!"

Then she heard Babidi shout, "Buu, this is your first task. Kill those two!"

The monster cried, "BUU!"

Nira cursed before grabbing one of Supreme Kai's arms, Gohan had the other.

The two blasted off, nearly neck and neck with the god of the Kai's dangling in between them.

"We'll be okay!" Gohan reassured them, but Nira could hear the second rush of wind with her enhanced ears.

"Left!" she shrieked so Gohan could hear her and the two swerved that way, Gohan nearly brushed against Buu, but the monster brought his fist up and brought it down on Gohan's back, sending him crashing into the ground. The force of the hit nearly brought Nira down with him but she landed with both feet on the ground.

Buu was at her in a second, back handing her before she could make sense of the situation and sending her flying. She landed hard in the ground, turning around midair so she wouldn't hurt her tail, and after a moment, got up. Blood was dripping down her nose and above her eye - brow.

She heard another crash and felt Supreme Kai's ki weaken exponentially from the new crater in the ground. Buu flew to him and not a moment later the god of the Kais was thrown back near Babidi.

"No!" Nira cried getting up, but she heard a sickening _crunch _and her ankle shook widely from under her. It had fractured on impact and when she put pressure on it, it had broke completely.

"_Crap!"_ she sighed. Her brow furrowed as she thought of her chances. The pain would be too distracting and she'd be practically useless on the ground.

There was a shout of pain and Nira made a split – second decision. "Fuck it." She growled, making a disc of energy in her hand and amputated her ankle and foot. Unfortunately, she was almost used to the pain of her own limbs being severed off. Scratch that, one could never get used to that.

She screamed from behind her teeth and a vein popped from her forehead as she concentrated on the bleeding nub. The pressure there was growing more rapidly than she had ever remembered it, probably because she was in Super mode.

"GRAAAH!" she shouted and a slimy new foot shot out of the stump. She wiggled her toes and rotated her ankle to make sure it was in working order before shooting off to the distance where she could hear Gohan and Buu fighting.

She was aiming for Buu as she drew nearer but an incoming ki caught her eye and she saw the red and blue flash of Dabura coming forward. Nira didn't know who he was aiming for, but with him still in Babidi's control she definitely counted on it not being Gohan.

She veered at him and kicked him down before he could do any damage.

"Nira?!" Gohan cried, dodging a kick from Buu.

"I'll take care of this creep!" she shouted back, beginning an attack. "I'll take him away from here so he won't do any damage. Gohan?"

"Yeah?" He panted, kicking Buu in the face.

"Don't die."

She didn't wait for him to answer before she enveloped Dabura in a sphere of energy. This was her 'impenetrable bubble'. Dabura won't be able to get out, but she would be able to get in. She knew she'd find some use for this attack at some point.

Nira kicked the ball so it was sailing over the mountains and she went after it. Dabura had already woken up and seemed to be surprised to find him in a bubble ten thousand feet in the air. The Morak brought her fists above it and brought them down, causing the bubble to crash into the ground like a missile. Dabura bounced wildly from inside it.

He was weakened from the attack from Buu, but so was she, right now it seemed to be a fifty – fifty chance that she could defeat him.

Nira walked towards the ball and put her palms flat against it. She let off a sound of a nuclear warhead inside of it. Dabura clapped his hands over his large ears as the bubble began to vibrate. Nira couldn't hear it thanks to the soundproofing the translucent ball gave but not for long. The bubble popped and before Dabura realized it Nira had kicked him right in the face, causing him to crash into the nearest mountain.

The Morakian went after him and began pummeling him with her fists and tearing at his flesh with her nails. Dabura had already recovered from the kick when she got there but was only just able to fight her off with the ringing in his ears. He would probably never get his hearing back.

He kicked her in the stomach and she had to back off. Dabura drew a deep breath began throwing fire her way. She dodged and hid behind a mountain to catch her breath.

_Use your emotions_. She reminded herself. _Get angry!_

She thought of Krillen and Piccolo back on the cliff, turned to stone with looks of terror etched on their faces.

"_You can do dis!"_ Corren's voice said. "_Momma always said yah could, Nira!"_

And suddenly she was five again at her first tournament. She had been so nervous, her little hands had been trembling since she woke up.

"_I'm not so sure, Corry…"_ _she mumbled, willing her hands to still. "The other kids say I'm too small to be a warrior." _

"_Jus' cuz yer a Reada don' mean yah can' be a worria, too!" he insisted, one of his front teeth were missing. He had lost it in a fight he had with their six – month old brother, Riz. "You didn' cry once when yah got dat!" he pointed to her white tattoo, the marking of a mind ability. "Or dat." He pointed to the pattern on her neck, "No one else can say dat! Terno cried an' cried allll day when he got his!"_

_Nira grinned despite herself. They weren't supposed to put others down for their own, or others sake, and she had to be the responsible older sister, but she couldn't help but feel a great swell of love for her little brother. She rubbed his cheek with hers in a display of sisterly affection. _

"_I guess you're right." She sighed, looking at fenced off ring. "There's no harm in trying."_

"_See? See!?" Corren squealed, his face flushing with excitement, "An' when I grow up to be stron' like you I'm gonna fight too! An' we'll be able to learn tageder!" He was grinning hugely, "So – so you haveda win! So we can pwotect the village - tageder!"_

_Nira nodded, "Yeah, I will, Corry. You wait and see!"_

The full – grown Nira set her face in look of set determination and she powered up while preparing an attack.

She felt Dabura coming closer and pointed her hand at the side of the mountain that he was coming around. When he came around, preparing to spit on her, Dabura's eyes widened before Nira shot powerful blast of both sound and energy at his chest. The creature was sent sailing away and she could see him crash landing, making a long trail of wrecked earth in his wake.

Taking a deep breath, Nira went after him. She saw him laying there, not moving, and shot down, planning on crushing his ribs, but he dodged out of her way at the last second.

The Earth shook from under Nira when she hit the ground, confused when Dabura wasn't there, but before she could sort herself out Dabura had appeared behind her and held her arms above her head. She began to struggle but he held her tightly. She knew that if she continued she could dislocate her shoulder or worse but a great blast of ki caught her attention.

She stopped her struggling to watch a large energy ball sail past them. Gohan's ki was mingled with it, it was nearly extinguished. Dabura noticed that she had stopped struggling and followed her eyes to the sky. He blinked in shock as he stared at the ball of energy.

It flew fast and furious. Nira's stomach felt like lead as it soared over the horizon before exploding loudly.

She couldn't feel Gohan's ki anymore.

Suddenly, the surge of emotion that she had been trying to call came forth, but Nira was able to channel it this time. She led the anger seep into her muscles and bones without letting it muddle her mind.

Without warning she broke from Dabura's slackened grip and shot a blast of sound at him. The creature vibrated horribly, surprised that she had gotten out of his grip, and that he had let himself become distracted to she could.

Releasing a battle cry she pelted after him. Dabura raised his defenses but he was now no match for the angered Morakian now. Her power level had soared to all new heights as she attacked the Demon Lord relentlessly, never letting him so much as catch a breath.

He tried spit at her again but she dodged it easily, smelling it before she saw it, and was at his throat once more.

Soon enough, Dabura was floating half heartedly in mid-air. Panting harshly, blood was pouring from his mouth and eye and his clothes were torn to ribbons.

"He's dead isn't he?" he snarled, "Your human friend?" he jeered, spitting a mix of blood and mucus onto the destroyed ground below him. He knew he wasn't going to make it now, but he was going to make his last moments account for as much pain as he could in his state. He chuckled mirthlessly, "He's dead. What did you all call him? Go – something?"

"_Shut up!_" she growled, smacking both hands over the creatures deaf ears. "_SHUT UUUUUUP!"_

She was releasing the attack. The one she most loathed. The one she didn't want to ever use.

Dabur must have sensed what was going on. Blood was dripping steadily from his nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. "Please!" he sputtered, blood flecking Nira's face. "Stop – _stop!"_

_BANG_.

Dabura's headless body fell heavily to the ground, a puddle of blood pouring from his neck.

What was left of his face and brain was on Nira's clothes and hands. She stared at the bits of skull and the blood that covered her hands and she suddenly felt sick. Holding her stomach, she leaned over and vomited.

After she was done she sunk slowly to the ground, making sure not to get near the body of the Demon Lord or the pool of upchuck.

She took great gulps of breath and got her baring's before flying towards the site where the energy ball had exploded.

"… Gohan?..." she cried softly, then louder, "Gohan?!" but it was no good. Gohan was surely dead. His familiar ki was no where to be found. She released a sigh of despair and fat tears fell down her face she mourned her good friend. "What am I going to tell Videl…ChiChi… Goku… Goten…." Nira sobbed, "I told you not to die, damnit!"

She sniffed before wiping her tears away with her fist. The Morakian took another deep breath before returning to where two large ki's were going head to head.


	17. Loss

Nira felt Buu's ki spike tremendously before she could even see him. She acted quickly and created a barrier of sound that blocked most of the terrifying attack but she was still thrown backwards with the force of it.

When she felt that it was safe enough she put her hands down, her arms were aching now, the blast had hurt her even with the shield. The Morakian rubbed them, wincing, before looking over to the huge crater Buu had left on the Earth with horror.

Nira flew closer to the ground and assessed the situation. She already knew Buu was there, and the other strong ki was Vegeta, she could feel that he had been badly hurt, Babidi didn't seemed to have been harmed by the blast, she couldn't feel Supreme Kai's ki anymore and –

Her eyes widened when she felt four familiar ki's then she skirted around the battlefield, keeping out of Buu's and Babidi's line of sight and straight towards Piccolo, Krillen, Goten, and Trunks. She saw them hovering just a little away from the crater.

She waved, letting them know that she was coming before she got there.

"Nira!?" Krillen gasped, staring at her. "Wha – what!?"

They were all gawking at her, ill-disguised shock on their faces. She stared back at them, bemused, before realizing that she was still in her Super mode.

"Yeah, um, I guess Morakians can become Super after all." She said sheepishly.

"How?" Piccolo asked, narrowing his eyes and drifting closer to her.

She sighed through her nose before answering, "Babidi tried to control me, and I became Super Morakian to fight it off. Not completely sure how and I'm not completely sure how to stop being Super Morak…"

Trunks opened his mouth like he was about to answer but Nira interrupted, "Now's not really the time, guys. We can talk about this later." _If there is a later_ "Right now, we should be worried about Vegeta." She ended, feeling a little hysterical as she turned to see Vegeta's battered form.

_He came to stop Buu_. She thought, a small light of hope flickering in her heart. _He didn't let himself be a slave._

Nira could feel Piccolo's eyes on her and she murmured softly, "What?"

The Namek sighed, "Gohans-"

"I know." She snapped, more tears threatening to flow down her face. "I saw it." Her voice broke and died.

"Dad…" Trunks began to say, "Dad won't lose! Not so someone like Buu!" he turned to look at Nira and Piccolo for reassurance.

Piccolo continued to grimace at the picture before them and Nira looked at Trunk's face. She knew what he was feeling. She felt it when her parents told her to get into the shuttle and protect her brothers before her planet was destroyed. There was foolish hope that it was just a mistake or a bad dream, and aching despair when you know you're wrong.

She swallowed thickly and returned watch Buu land onto the ground. She wasn't about to get the boy's hopes up. It would just make the pain worse.

Buu took a piece of his gut with both hands and began to pull on it until it separated from his body. There was no blood, in fact his stomach seemed completely fine. The monster took the pink blob in his hands and stretched it out and showed it off to Vegeta.

"You disgusting bastard…" Nira heard him growled, "What are you going to do?"

Buu's answered was shooting an energy ball from his mouth at him. Vegeta leaped out of the way, where he had been standing not a second earlier erupted like a land mine, but this seemed to be part of Buu's plan. The monster threw the stretched out blob at Vegeta and it wrapped itself around him like a thick rope. Vegeta fell to the ground like a rock.

Buu danced towards the Saiyan prince and kicked him away before going after him and sat on him, causing Vegeta to shriek in pain. Buu began to pummel him in the face with his fists while he sat on top of him.

"He's getting killed!" Krillen cried, "What happened to Goku and Gohan? Where they killed?"

"My brother… he can't be dead!" Goten snarled.

Nira had to close her eyes and mouth tightly to keep herself from saying otherwise or letting her tears give her away. She couldn't do that to the boy right now.

Trunks growled like an angered dog and was shaking with anger.

"Trunks, control yourself!" Piccolo told him, "There's nothing you can do except get in the way! You'll just make your Dad's sufferings worse!

"NO!" he boomed, changing into Super Saiyan 2 and taking off to help his father.

"HEY!" Piccolo blurted.

"Trunks! I'm going with you!" Goten declared, changing into Super Saiyan 2 as well and going after him.

"GOTEN!... Damnit." Piccolo growled.

Nira put a hand on his shoulder, feeling his distress through the contact, "I'll go with them, I'll get them out of it if I feel its too dangerous." Before Piccolo could tell her otherwise she went after the two boys.

The two boys zipped by Babidi, but Nira seized the opportunity to smack the alien across the face as she flew past him. She heard him curse loudly in his surprise and pain and felt a flare of cruel joy light up inside her.

She watched Trunks kick Buu full force and winced inwardly, this was already too dangerous. She should just grab the boys and get them out of there as soon as possible.

Buu crashed through mountain after mountain until he was out of sight.

Goten was already unwrapping the pink rope when she landed. Vegeta was panting heavily and in obvious pain.

"Are you okay, sir?" Goten asked.

"Hang in there, Dad!" Trunks begged.

She helped Trunks get him up, but when she touched his skin she peaked into Vegeta's mind, looking for any signs of Babidi's influence, but what she found was more than she had expected or bargained for. When he was standing up she released him as if she were burned.

"Vegeta-" she began to say but he interrupted her.

"Trunks…" he said softly, "Take good care of your mother…"

"What do you mean, Dad?" Trunks asked, confused, "About me taking care of mom….?" He added apprehensively.

Nira knew exactly what he was talking about, but her throat had closed up on her again. Her hands were trembling at her sides and her eyes were brimming with tears.

"You three should get away now…." He replied, "I'll kill Buu myself."

Trunk's stared at his father with determination. "No way! We'll fight with you!" he said. "If you fight him alone you'll be killed! We can beat him as a team!"

"That won't work. Normal attacks are useless against him…" Vegeta revealed.

"Wha..? You're wrong. We're all really strong! Look – Nira's even turned Super Morakian!" he pointed out, conveniently not mentioning that she was nearly as bad off as Vegeta at the moment after her battle with Dabura.

The Saiyan prince continued to stare in the direction where Buu had been kicked.

"Trunks," he said after a moment, "I've never held you since you were a baby, right?"

"Huh?" Trunks uttered.

"Come here." He said, reaching out and pulling his only child close to him.

Nira's heart ached as she watched them, she wanted to stop him but she knew that wasn't her decision to make, and this might just be the best chance they have.

"Whats wrong Dad?" Trunks babbled, "Stop it you're embarrassing me!" he cried, but he was smiling.

"Take care of yourself…" Vegeta said softly, looking at his sons face, "Trunks." And he jabbed him swiftly in the neck and Trunks passed out, back in his normal form.

Goten cried out, "What are you doing-" but Vegeta hit him in the stomach, causing him to pass out next to his friend.

He turned to glare at Nira, "Don't make me do the same to you." He warned.

Nira glared at him, "I couldn't stop you if you tried." She retorted, taking a step forward, "I know what you're doing. I'm not going to say that I agree with you, or that I want you to do it, but…." A few tears fell down her face, "Just think about your wife and son. Bulma and Trunks are going to miss you like Hell when you're gone. Don't-" she growled when he opened his mouth, "say that I don't know what I'm talking about, because I do."

Vegeta closed him mouth and waited for her to continue.

"I get that this is our best chance." She said, more tears falling making clean streaks down her dirty cheeks. "Just know you're going to be missed. That includes me…" she nodded, giving him a watery smile, "I'm going to miss you too."

Vegeta looked down at his feet, a soft sadness in his eyes.

Nira limped towards the boy's and picked up Trunks when Piccolo landed beside her.

She looked up when she heard humming. Buu was coming closer.

"Take the kids and take them as far away as you can." Vegeta ordered. "I'm counting on you Nira, Piccolo."

"Of course." Piccolo answered, picking up Goten.

"You're going to die, aren't you?" The Namek accused.

Vegeta didn't answer his question directly, but instead said, "Tell me something… Will I meet Kakarot?"

Nira looked up at her mentor's face as he pondered the question. "I'm not going to lie to you, Vegeta, although the answer may be difficult for you to hear…" he warned, "Goku devoted his life to protecting the lives of others, because of his selflessness he was aloud to keep his body and travel to King Kai's planet. You, on the other hand, have spent your life in pursuit of your own selfish desire. You've caused too much pain. When you die you will not receive the same reward."

Nira watched Buu get ever closer. It was easier to worry about the threat of the monster than the fate of her friend.

"I see…" Vegeta muttered, not sounding the least bit surprised, "That's too bad."

Buu was dangerously close now, Nira could feel her hackles rise.

"Enough! Go now!", the Saiyan ordered, not turning away from the monster ahead of him. "Hurry!"

Nira and Piccolo took off as fast as they could

"Lets go, Krillen!"

"Get out of here!"

Krillen took off after them, quickly catching up.

"What's Vegeta doing?" Krillen asked, his voice a bit panicky, "He'll get killed!"

"This is the first time he's fought for the behalf of others…" Piccolo answered, "He's going to sacrifice himself."

Then there was blast of ki, even more powerful than the one Buu had released earlier. Nira had to flatten her ears to protect them from the sound of the explosion. Their clothes and hair whipped in the wind that blast had created. Nira could smell Vegeta's scent on it.

When it had finally subsided the trio stared in the direction where the explosion had taken place. The lead feeling in Nira's stomach grew to a point where she thought she might get sick again.

"Krillen, take Goten. I'll see what happened." Piccolo muttered.

"Okay..," The man agreed, taking the boy from the Namek's arms.

"You two shouldn't keep quiet about this." He told them over his shoulder, "You have to tell his family." He look pointedly at Nira, and she knew he didn't just mean The Brief family. "I don't know about Goku, but Gohan…" his expression became pained, "Gohan was killed by Buu. That's what I heard Vegeta say, and Nira confirmed it." And he took off.

Krillen gaped at the Namek before turning to the Morakian. "G… Gohan was killed?" he asked in a soft, slightly trembling voice.

She nodded sadly, "I saw the blast that killed him."

He looked down at the Earth below them. "Not Gohan too…"

The two mourned their friends in silence until Piccolo came back.

"He regenerated!" he crowed the moment he stopped, "Buu's not dead!"

"Buu's not dead!?" Krillen gasped, "So, Vegeta died for nothing?"

A muscle in Nira's face twitched, she was too stunned for words.

"So, what now?" the man asked to no one in particular.

"We'll go to the Lookout so Dende can heal the boys and you, Nira." Piccolo answered.

**DBZ**

"Thanks, Dende."

"It was nothing." The young Namekian replied, "You should be good to move around now."

Nira nodded, but didn't get up from the bed. Even though she had been healed she felt dead tired, both emotionally and physically, "Can I just rest here for a bit?" she asked quietly.

The Namek smiled kindly, "Of course, rest as long as you need." He closed the curtains and left the room.

The Morakian turned to watch Goten and Trunk's slow and steady breathing. They were still alive, she still had that much to thank for.

She felt like she wanted to cry again, but she had no more tears to spare. What was she going to tell Bulma, and Chichi, Goten, Videl, and Trunks? That the people they loved died when she could've stopped it from happening?

Nira felt her power level drop as she turned to watch the dust swirl in the light that leaked from the pale curtains. Her eyes were drooping and her brain was becoming fuzzy.

She reluctantly fell into slumber.

**Note: I think Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be my days off from now on.**


	18. Babidi Strikes Back

Nira didn't remember what she dreamed when she woke up. There was a soft thing curled up on the back of her neck, breathing softly. It startled when she stirred.

"Puar?" she murmured drowsily, rubbing her eyes. She was surprised to find her cheeks wet. She reached up to run a hand through her hair and found that it was normal again and her nails weren't black anymore.

"Nira!" The creature cheered, floating so she could see him properly, "You're awake!"

"Yeah." She muttered, sitting up and stretching, "Whats going on?"

"Nothing much." He answered, sitting on her knee, "We only got here a couple minutes ago, everyone's outside."

The Morakian nodded, looking to her right to see that Goten and Trunks were still asleep.

"Alright then." She said quietly, getting off the bed.

Puar got off her knee and flew ahead of her as they walked outside to see everyone was grouped in a circle. Nira headed towards Piccolo and flew up to give her usual greeting chin-to-head bump.

"I really wish you would stop that…" he muttered when she went back to the ground, he was rubbing his chin where she bopped him.

"I told you, its proper respect." She retorted before going to stand near Yamcha and Bulma. They both gave her a strange look but didn't say anything.

Everyone nodded to her and she nodded back. She couldn't bring herself to look at Bulma, Chichi, or Videl.

"Alright there, Nira?" Goku asked her.

"'M fine." She uttered, tugging at a lock of hair.

"Where's Goten and Gohan?" ChiChi asked, looking around as if they would suddenly pop into sight.

"And Trunk's and Vegeta?" The scientist added.

Nira's gut twisted itself even further and she looked up at Goku, a question in her eyes.

He shook his head and she sighed in relief.

"We were going to tell you anyways, so here goes…" he said in a clear voice, "Goten and Trunks are fine…. Gohan and Vegeta are dead."

"WHAT!?"

ChiChi fell backwards, passed out.

"Vegeta's dead…" she whispered, tears beginning to fall down her face, "That's…" she wailed in emotional agony, "I DON'T WANT HIM TO BE DEAD!"

Nira took her surrogate mother into her arms as she began to sob uncontrollably into her shoulder. The scientist's knees buckled and Nira was forced to drop to the ground with her. She held her gently, holding back tears of her own.

Suddenly, everyone heard Babidi's voice as if they were right next to them.

"_People of Earth, can you hear me?"_ he asked. _"My name is Babidi and I'm a magician. Don't bother looking for me. I'm talking to you through your thoughts._

_I'm sorry to tell you this since you've been living in peace, but because of four idiots, something awful happened to me today… I'm looking for these fools. Close your eyes. You'll see them."_

"Shit!" Nira cursed when she closed her eyes. Babidi was showing images of Piccolo, Trunks, Goten and her.

"_See these four?" _Babidi asked, _"That's them!_

_Come to me!" _he said. Nira could almost feel his malicious grin, _"They should know themselves, but if they _don't_ come…"_

Then, an image of Babidi appeared. "_First, let me introduce myself. I am the terrifying magician Babidi" _again, the image changed, this time to Buu. "_This is my slave, the even more terrifying Buu! He's very strong,"_ he assured, _"No one can beat him!"_

Then the images changed to that of a city.

"_See this city? I'll show a little of what will happen if those four don't show themselves."_

"No!" Nira cried.

Piccolo's eyes flew open, "Stop it!"

It was like a camera was turning to Babidi in a movie. He had his hand held out as if to display the city at an auction. His face twisted in evil glee.

"_I don't like to ramble on too much."_ He mused, _"So, I'll kill all of the people in the city cleanly!"_

Buu stuck his arms out in front of him and every citizen of that city flew up high. Nira swore she could hear a child's screams among the shrieks and yells of the humans.

"_Change to candy!"_ Buu squealed, a beam of energy shooting out of his antennae.

When the beam hit the citizens, they turned into little, multicolored balls of candy. Buu inhaled hugely and all of the citizens-turned-sweets came flying into his mouth at once. Nira's stomach turned as he began to eat them, crunching and munching and grinding them together until he finally swallowed.

"_That's what'll happen to everyone."_ Babidi stated, showing off his prized pet as the blob patted his stomach happily.

The camera changed again so everyone had a view of the city as well as the magician and Buu.

"_This city is useless that everyone's gone. Oh well…" _Babidi hummed, "_I guess we should clean up this mess."_ He turned to the creature _"Clean it up, Buu."_ He ordered, _"Not too hard or you'll destroy the planet."_ He added, giving him a thumbs up.

"_Okay! Okay!" _The monster cheered, waving his arms excitedly over his head as if he couldn't wait to destroy something.

Buu started to take a deep breath, so deep, in fact, his stomach had extended to twice its normal size. He held it for a moment before shooting it out in a fierce blast, like a hurricane. He moved his head from side to side to make sure he got everything.

Meanwhile, the city was being blast to smithereens in a cloud of dust and rubble.

When Buu stopped and the dust settled the city was gone. Just like that.

"_I guess it's too dusty now."_ Babidi cackled.

Again, the camera turned so it Babidi could stare the civilization of Earth down, with Buu waving from behind them.

"_I'll tell you one more time."_ He said, wagging a thing, gnarled finger as the image turned black again.

"_It's him…"_ there was an image of Piccolo. _"Him…"_ Trunks. _"Him…"_ Goten. _"And her…"_ Nira.

"_Tell me where those three are now, if you don't want to be turned into candy and eaten by Buu. By the way," _he added_, "I'll kill all the Earthlings in five days, so you'd better tell me fast._

_Oh, I nearly forgot! If you want to talk to me call to me mentally, and then concentrate a bit." _he tapped the side of his head with his finger, _"I really hope you'll contact me._

_Oh!"_ Babidi gasped, _"I've gotten someone!"_

Nira's hackled raised.

There was another voice, a man's voice, that could be heard, _"Uh, I work at the Budokai that was held today…"_

"_Okay, go on."_ The wizard encouraged.

"_Those three were participants."_ The man continued, _"Their names are Majunior, Trunks, Nira, and Goten."_

"_Names don't help."_ Babidi snapped, _"Tell me where they live."_

The man's voice was somewhat panicky when he said, _"You want their addresses? I don't know that!"_

"_Their names won't do any good."_

Then the man began to yowl in pain and confusion. Then the image appeared and it was of two men from the Budokai. The man was holding his head, positively screaming now. Then _BOOM_. The man's head had exploded.

Nira could feel bile rise from her throat but she forced herself to swallow it. That was too much like how she killed Dabura…. She forced herself to open her eyes and take a deep breath. She noticed that Bulma was crying softly and it didn't feel like she was going to let Nira go anytime soon, so the Morak sighed and held the human a little tighter and closed her eyes again.

"_I don't want useless information. Otherwise, you'll end up like him." _The vision had turned back to Babidi and Buu, whom was making a face behind his master's back.

"_I'm very busy. It's time for me to destroy some more cities."_

He hopped on Buu's back and they began to fly away, but the imaginary camera followed them.

"_Who knows? I might visit you next. Just to tell you, hiding won't do you any good. In five days I'll destroy the entire planet._ _I'm going to blow the whole thing to bits. I' waiting for your information."_

Nira opened her eyes, beads of sweat were beginning to drip down her neck. She helped Bulma up, who was looking furious.

"Shit! Damn him!" Piccolo roared.

Dnede looked enraged. "I can't believe how evil he is."

Nira noticed that Bulma was shaking beside her. "He killed Vegeta…" she growled.

"We don't need anymore victims." Piccolo said, seeming to get control of himself again. "I'll go to him."

"Don't be stupid, Piccolo!" Goku snapped, "If you die, who's going to teach Trunks and Goten Fusion after I'm gone?" his face was full of anger and determination. "If they don't learn it, no one will be able to beat Buu."

"Then let me."

Nira felt the words come out of her mouth before she was able to fully process what she was saying. When she was met with incredulous stares she continued, "I'm not that strong, but maybe with one of us giving up it'll sate him, even if just for a bit. Besides," she sighed, "I'm not needed for this. You need Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks." She felt her stomach drop with resignation. "It won't matter if I'm gone."

Then, Bulma punched her in the face.

It didn't hurt, she hardly felt it, but she recoiled with surprise anyway.

The scientist was crying harder now. She grabbed Nira's shirt and began shaking the Morakian furiously.

"_WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WON'T MATTER!? YOU – YOU!" _she began to hit Nira in the stomach, her every hit becoming weaker as sobs of rage overcame her.

"Bulma?!" Nira gasped getting on her knees, but not touching her.

Her surrogate mother looked up at her face, her face shining with tears.

"I can't lose you too." She sniffed, holding her sides as if she were afraid that if she touched her surrogate daughter she would be gone in a puff of smoke.

"Yeah." Yamcha chimed in, kneeling beside Nira, "You matter, a lot." He blushed a little but didn't look away.

The lone Morakian took her eyes away from the human to look at Bulma, who was staring Nira with shining eyes. The alien girl scooched towards her and held her arms out. The blue – haired woman looked from her open arms to her face.

There was an immediate understanding between the two and Bulma let herself be picked up by the elbows and set back on her feet. Yamcha followed, putting a hand on the small of Nira's back.

The Morakian at person in the crowd and nodded.

"Sorry." She said, "I guess… that was a stupid thing to say…"

"Damn right it was." Piccolo muttered, giving his student a reproachful look.

Goku continued as if none of this had happened, "He'll destroy the planet anyways. We can bring all the people back, and restore the Earth with the Dragon Balls, so don't let him get to you."

Nira nodded, "Yeah…"

**DBZ**

"Why did you say what you said?" Nira heard a deep voice inquire from behind her.

She was sitting on the steps a little ways away from everyone. The peace and quiet was soothing to her frazzled nerves.

"I don't know." She answered truthfully, "Why did you?"

Piccolo folded his arms, glaring at his ward with unreadable eyes.

"It… made sense to me." He admitted after a few moments.

Nira nodded, looking back at the expanse of blue sky. "Same here, I guess."

The pair stared at the ground for a while in tense silence.

"How did you get hurt?" Piccolo asked, "You were no where near Buu when I woke up."

The Morak ran a clawed hand through her hair. "I fought Dabura while Gohan fought Buu. The red man that killed Kibito."

Piccolo nodded, and waited silently for her to continue.

"He's really strong. Goku said he was about as strong as Cell," she sighed, "We fought twice, the first time I nearly lost. Then I turned Super Saiyan and I almost lost again, but…" she was seeing something that wasn't really there. "I saw the blast that killed Gohan…. Saw his body fall to the ground… and I just got _angry_." She looked up at her mentor. "I felt powerful and _angry_ and I…I…." her hands were starting to shake. "I killed Dabura."

Piccolo realized how much of a big deal this was to her and walked towards her and placed a reassuring hand on her head. Nira leaned into the contact and a tear fell down her face.

"I'm a killer." She whispered in mortification.

"Dabura was evil." Piccolo countered, not taking his hand off her head of thick hair. "And he needed to be stopped."

Nira looked up at her mentor's face. "Do you… do you…?"

"No," he answered her unasked question, "I don't think you're a monster."

There were no more tears left for her to shed and she hiccupped. "Thank you, Piccolo."

The Namek gave his student's head a gentle pat, "No need to thank me."

**DBZ**

Nira's ears twitched when she heard the sleepy grumbles of two boys. "They're awake." She announced, turning to the building.

"I will get them." Mr. Popo chirped, heading inside.

Everyone waited in silence for the two boys to come outside, led my Mr. Popo. Nira was waiting in anticipation and apprehension.

Then Trunk's and Goten arrived, led my Mr. Popo, they all knew what they would have to tell them. And, just as they had anticipated, it had not gone well.

"You're lying!" Trunks muttered, holding his fists at his sides as tears and snot rolled down his face. "Dad wouldn't get killed by someone like that!"

Unlike Trunks, Goten was not holding back his tears. He bawled, "MY BROTHER'S DEAD!"

Nira wanted to go to them and hold them, but again, she understood this pain, and if they let themselves get consumed by it there would be no room to learn the Fusion. That would surely not be good at all.


End file.
